Jungle Adventures
by unslinky
Summary: The Doctor has come up trumps with a nice beach for Donna to relax on but things don't go exactly as planned. Doctor Whump.
1. Chapter 1

When Donna woke after a surprisingly calm couple of days in which the Doctor had actually come up trumps with the idea of a peaceful period on a beautiful and deserted tropical beach she could feel that the TARDIS was in flight. She guessed that three days on their remote tropical island was too much to ask of her trouble loving adventurer. She was surprised that he had lasted that long.

For the first day he had tolerated it, accepting that he probably too needed a rest. She had even managed to persuade him to get out of his pinstripes and into some swimwear.

He'd enjoyed splashing around in the surf with her and they'd done some snorkelling though she admitted that a sight of a creature, known as a palmo, that the Doctor described as this particular planet's equivalent of a great white shark had put her off slightly and she'd gone in despite his protests that it was only a baby and no danger. As far as Donna was concerned if there were babies then there were also parents and she was not going to stick around to find out.

They had laid on the beach and he had ensured that she had adequate sun protection on, happily applying it on her bikini clad body in the areas where she could not easily reach herself. She had done the same for him. As the sun set the Doctor surprised her even further. He started a fire, brought a grille pan out, and set about cooking a meal right there on the beach. It was hard enough to get him to set foot in the galley on normal occasions, except to make cups of tea.

They laid out on the sands as the sky darkened, the cool sea breeze wafted over them, but the fire kept them warm. One by one a million, million stars graced the heavens and the Doctor laid on his back in the sand just relaxing and watching them. Donna laid on her side, watching him watch the sky and smiled slightly. It was rare to see him so still and so relaxed. He smiled as he turned to look at her.

On the second day he had spent the morning just enjoying the beach. Checking the tide lines for anything interesting and presented Donna with some beautiful shells that had been washed up. The island was small, only a mile across, and there were no other inhabitants on it and no dangerous animals, unless including the palmo babies – which the Doctor still insisted had not been dangerous.

He had cooked another meal, but then once they'd eaten he had stood and pouted a little like a puppy dog. He was blocking Donna's sun and he asked if she minded if he went exploring inland for a little while. He knew she would want to remain on the beach. She teased him a little about being like a child asking permission to go and play, but of course she granted it. He headed back into the TARDIS first, coming back out with his shorts on, his Converse, and a three-quarter length sleeved linen shirt that laced rather than buttoned.

Donna definitely didn't look at the way that the shirt hung off his surprisingly muscular shoulders or the way the ivory fabric highlighted the bronzed tan he'd picked up after only one day in the sunshine, or how the freckles across his face all kind of bunched up together when he grinned at her. She banished all those kinds of thoughts from her mind as he waved and then headed off up over some rocks and into the forest promising to be back well before it started to get dark and to cook again. Apparently cooking on the beach was very different to cooking in the galley and not domestic at all.

He had been as good as his word and had come back just as the sun started to dip down beyond the sea at the horizon highlighting the mill pond ocean with reds and oranges. He had fashioned himself a bag by stitching two huge leaves together with a bit of vine. It amused Donna that he had taken the time to do that rather than just come back and fetch a bag from the TARDIS, or, his jacket as he seemed to be able to fit an impossible amount of stuff in his pockets.

From the bag he brought some stones that had markings drawn on them and he'd seemed quite excited by the language that the engravings were written in. But then he'd put them away in the TARDIS and cooked them another meal.

"Two days at the coast too much for ya?" Donna teased as she went into the flight deck. Instead of him being back in his suit he was wearing a different pair of knee length shorts, his cream Converse, and that ivory shirt again. Donna blinked and tried to drag her eyes away from him. It was like seeing a boy out of their school uniform and suddenly realising that they were actually hot.

"Not at all," the Doctor commented from the floor where he was lying. He had the monitor from the console angled downward so he could see that as well as look at a large hand-drawn map that looked pretty ancient that he had lain out carefully. He'd also got the rocks that he had collected from the island the previous day. "I thought you might like to try a different island?" the Doctor offered. "Away from the palmo breeding grounds and a short hop away."

"A different beach?" Donna crouched down to look at the map he was working on better.

"Yes," the Doctor commented. "You see, I think yesterday that we were here." He pointed to an island on the map. "If you look at the aerial scans the TARDIS has taken of the archipelago it looks almost the same as the map, don't you think?"

"Kind of," Donna offered. "The islands don't really look the same shape and is there an island missing?"

"This map is over thirty thousand years old and was devised by a group of monks travelling around through the islands in sail and rowing boats. There was no technologies involved in mapping the islands. There are going to be some deviations and there are some actual differences, the planet we're on has an unstable crust much the same as the Earth, all of the time the plates are shifting and moving underneath the sea bed.

"The islands have migrated across the ocean floor at quite a staggering rate, and, there are in fact two new islands, or, more accurately, two new sea mounts. One of which has broken through the surface of the ocean and is an actual island, and the newest which remains active is an underground volcano. When enough lava is extruded it will breech the surface of the ocean and become the next island in the chain, until the plate moves further along the hot spot and a further island starts to form," the Doctor explained to Donna. He pointed the current features out on the map as he spoke.

"The markings on the stones you found match some of the markings on the map," Donna realised. There were hieroglyphs of some kind in a border around the edge of the map. The stones had the same markings on.

"I know!" he beamed. "It's fantastic. It was supposed to be a myth! And, look, islands that match the map and stones on those islands have the same markings as the map," he looked toward Donna. "And, I mean, most myths and legends have some sort of root in reality, don't they?" he asked Donna hoping that she would agree with him, but she really didn't know much about what he was talking about.

"So, which beach are we going to now?" Donna asked him.

"Well, I was looking at this cove here on the largest island, but the topography on the map and the TARDIS scans suggest that there is a sheer cliff around it and it's pretty rocky, so, you'd not get so much sun…"

"And you'd not be able to escape?" Donna raised her eyebrows at him and the Doctor looked shocked at the idea, or more realistically, shocked that she knew him so well already. She looked at the map. "So, are we going to this beach then?" Donna asked pointing to another section on the same island.

"How do you know that?" the Doctor asked her curiously.

"Well, I can read a map," Donna offered. "Those lines close together are the cliff, and, this beach hasn't got lines close together, or not too close anyway, it still looks like it is a bit steep going off into the green bits. Are the green bits forest?"

"Well, more like virgin tropical jungle," the Doctor commented, but nodded. "Rainforest."

"And, most importantly," Donna commented. "Don't think I've not noticed that bloody great big cross on the map!" Donna exclaimed and pointed to the black cross that was located closest to the beach with the impassable cliffs, but the beach she indicated to was the one nearest to him. The Doctor winced slightly and tugged on his ear as he looked at her wondering if she was going to be cross or suggest that it was insane and that they shouldn't go. "Is it a treasure map?"

"Well, kind of, not treasure in the sense of it being gold or pirate booty or anything of actual intrinsic value."

"No diamonds then?" Donna pouted slightly.

"Sorry." The Doctor chuckled. "It is said that the scrolls of the Great Mambosa contain the word of their Gods and the ways of their worlds. It has always been a mystery. The Mambosa were an advanced civilisation far ahead of their times within their universe. Like the ancient Inca or the Nazca's on Earth but with the ability to travel in space. It is one of the great mysteries of the universe, and, I admit that it has been a hobby of mine and I've collected some bits and pieces including this map and now to find those rocks? And, I mean I didn't even expect to find them, I just asked the TARDIS to locate a nice beach that we'd both enjoy."

"That we'd both enjoy," Donna commented and rolled her eyes at him. "And you don't think that meant she'd find something for you too?"

"Ah, I didn't think of that," the Doctor offered. He rubbed his hand over the metal grate of the floor. "Thanks old girl."

"She'd know you'd not want to lie on a beach all day. She put you on the trail of your treasure, and, you think the scrolls are there?" She indicated to the cross.

"If they are, then it is going to be one of the greatest archaeological finds ever," the Doctor commented and then grinned.

"But, Doctor?" Donna puzzled for a moment. "You've got a time machine. Why don't you just travel back to the time of the Mambosa and find it all out first hand? You could go and watch where they buried the scrolls."

"Where is the fun in that?!" the Doctor exclaimed. "It's not a treasure hunt when you know where the treasure is buried." He bit his bottom lip and looked at Donna. "Do you want to come and find it?"

"What? Come with you into the jungle?" Donna asked him. She looked at the map. "It must be about two and a half miles into the jungle from the beach where you're going to land."

"Yeah, it is, but… there is no scale on the map, so how do you know that from there and now from there?" the Doctor asked Donna curiously as she'd not looked at the map showing on the TARDIS.

"That is the island we were on yesterday." Donna pointed to it and the Doctor nodded. "You said that it was only about a mile long, and, this island is the biggest in the chain by far." She pointed to the island that they were going to go to. "And, our island from yesterday fits into the gap between the beach and the cross two and a bit times, so it must be about two and a half miles. Or, you could just fly the TARDIS to the cross?"

"And where is the fun in that?!" the Doctor exclaimed and Donna laughed. "Don't you want to come?"

"Won't I slow you down?"

"No, well, maybe a little bit, but not much, and it's jungle that I doubt any one has walked through in thousands and thousands of years. It's got to be worth exploring a bit on the way don't you think?" the Doctor asked her. He had no intention of following the map straight to the cross and back again. If Donna came with him then there would be someone to share all the new experiences with.

"Is it dangerous?" Donna asked him.

"It's a jungle," the Doctor commented and cocked his head slightly trying to think of the best words to describe the relative danger. "It's like any jungle. There could be dangers in there, but, it's not got hostile aliens or any large predators." He got up off the floor and ran a scan from the TARDIS. "There are some reptiles and the usual insects and things, some of them may be toxic, but I've got an anti-venom kit and I've transferred my pockets into the shorts," the Doctor advised Donna.

"You mean you transferred the things out of your pockets?" Donna checked.

"No, my actual pockets," the Doctor confirmed and then smiled. "They're bigger on the inside. Plenty of room for anti-venom. Not that we'll need it, but to be on the very safest of sides. And, I don't see anything that is any more dangerous here than in a rainforest on Earth," he assured her. "If you don't want to come then it's okay, you can enjoy the beach again, but I won't be back for lunch."

"I want to come," Donna commented. "It will be like we're real proper explorers," she grinned. "I'll go and get changed. Have you got a water flask and things?" Donna asked him. He patted his shorts pockets.

Donna went back into her quarters on the TARDIS. She was quite excited about being a proper explorer for a change. None of this spacy stuff, alright, they weren't on Earth, but it was still going to be proper exploring. She tied her hair back and the plaited it so that it wouldn't get caught up and no creepy crawlies might have got into it. She then coiled the plait up onto the top of her head and pinned it in place. She pulled on a pair of khaki combat trousers and a pair of thick socks and hiking boots. She then pulled on a vest top, but she didn't want to get stung or bitten by insects, so she put on a thin muslin shirt over the top. She only did a couple of the buttons and then she tied it around her waist at the bottom, so it just covered her shoulders and the tops of her arms. She got her sunhat and put that on, making sure that most of her hair was stuffed up inside it. She let a couple of ringlets fall to frame her face and then she went into the wardrobe room. She didn't want any creepy crawlies thinking that Time Boy was walking with a messy nest on his head either. She found the perfect hat for him and then went back onto the flight deck.

"Here," she tossed him the hat. He caught it, looked at it, and then grinned and put it on the top of his head. "It's like Indiana Jones's hat! Now you look the real part, no whip though," she commented and the Doctor laughed. "Right, are we going to land then?" Donna asked.

"Um, yes, right, time to go," the Doctor commented. He found his eyes drawn to the way in which Donna's vest top and shirt framed her breasts and how they jiggled ever so slightly as she came over to him. Apart from a few strands all of her hair was up inside her straw sunhat which was both practical and feminine. He could see the slightest redness on the skin at the back of her neck where she'd not applied enough sun screen. He blushed as he imagined smoothing the sun screen across her skin. It was totally inappropriate to be having such thoughts about Donna. She was a mate. She was the perfect mate with perfect... he cleared his throat and jumped into action returning to his pile on the floor.

The Doctor carefully rolled the map back up. He secured it with a metal band about its middle and then caps on either end and shoved it into his pocket. He didn't need to take the rocks with him, they would just be part of his collection of Great Mambosa artefacts. He had quite a collection of different things, he hoped that there would be more things he could pick up on the trail through the jungle.

"Here, breakfast, because I've not eaten and I doubt you have," Donna commented and passed him a wrapped bit of flap jack with sliced banana stuck to the top with melted chocolate. He grinned his gratitude as he ripped the plastic off and took a healthy bite. It was the perfect blend of carbohydrates to keep them going for their hike into the jungle. He had various snack bars in his pockets and if they were stranded then he had enough energy tablets to see them through a month. With his sonic, a couple of tin mugs, some water, and some tea bags he was also going to be able to make them tea when they arrived there.

He thought it might take a few hours to make it two miles through the jungle. There were no cliffs but they would still be going up toward the centre of the island and it had been formed by volcanic activity so although subjected to the longest weathering so the peaks were now rounded and colonised, it would still be pretty rocky in places. He was pleased to see that Donna had put some sturdy hiking boots on. He didn't want her to lose her footing on the rocks or roll an ankle in the middle of the jungle.

He double checked that they had everything he thought he needed and then he opened the TARDIS doors. She had landed on the most beautiful of beaches yet again. She was away from the tide line and beneath a palm type tree that curved up at the edge of the jungle so that its leaves gained maximum sunlight. The sand wasn't talcum powder white but it was a mix of grey, blue, and green grains that gave it a mousy appearance. It was still soft and it stretched as far as the eye could see in one direction and around the end of the island where the dormant volcano stretched upward in the other. The sea lapped up onto the sand leaving a repeated crescent of drift wood and other flotsam up the beach.

"We can stay here for a couple of days if you would like," the Doctor offered as Donna looked at the beach longingly. "I bet there is some good snorkelling to be had round by the rocky areas too. Unless, you have changed your mind and you'd rather remain on the beach?" he asked her.

"In this get up?" she asked him and straightened her sun hat. "Dr Livingstone I presume?" Donna linked arms with the Doctor.

"Now there is a man to go and meet," the Doctor suggested.

"Could you imagine it?" Donna chuckled. "He'd be right in the middle of the jungle in Central Africa searching for the source of the Nile, supposedly the only Westerner out there and we just turn up with a flask of tea and a plate of biscuits?"

They laughed as the Doctor double checked his direction with the sonic screwdriver. As long as they kept the mountain on their left as they went into the jungle they would be alright, though they'd not always be able to see the mountain when the vegetation was at its densest.

"Don't you need a machete or something?" Donna asked.

"What would I want a machete for?" the Doctor asked puzzled.

"To cut our way through the jungle?"

"There won't be much that is too dense to pass," the Doctor commented. "The plants still need light. Most vines we'll be able to skirt around or I can cut them with this." He grinned as he pulled a short handled scythe out of his pocket. It had a bit of rubber and a cork on its end so that there was no risk to his person if he ever lost the transdimensional aspect of his pockets.

The border of the beach to the jungle was gradual. They were on the sand, then they were on sand but surrounded by trees. They had to clamber up over a series of boulders a hundred metres or so away from the beach beyond which the sand was gone. The Doctor was the perfect gentleman and went first, finding the easiest route, and then helped Donna up behind him.

When they were both up on the tops of the rocks they looked out into the jungle. "Oh wow, look at it all?" Donna was amazed. There was a plethora of different plants, tall trees that stretched up a hundred metres above them on wide reddish trunks. They were covered in different vines that snaked their way upwards rushing toward the light in the canopy. Wherever dappled light hit the forest floor it looked like there had been a plant explosion as different shrubs, vines, and flowering plants fought for the light. Every shade of green and blue was represented in the different plants from the waxy emerald leaves of a head height plant with six pointed leaves that were a metre across to the tiny turquoise clusters of diamond shaped leaves that covered some long vines wrapping around a massive tree trunk. The smell was amazing, a dank damp of leaf litter and fungus mixing with the pungent fragrances of the colourful flowers attracting the flying insects that flitted around.

The Doctor was right, they didn't have to cut their way through the forest, but they did have to be careful where they put their feet as rocks under the leaf litter were as much a risk as the roots of the great trees where they broke the surface. They didn't see much in the way of animal life beyond the insects as they moved deeper into the jungle, but they could hear it. The Doctor explained that most of it would be tree dwelling animals living in the canopy way above them where the trees were filled with fruits and nuts. Insect eaters would come down to the lower levels in search of the leaf litter bugs, but many of them would be nocturnal.

A running commentary was kept by the Time Lord as they travelled through the jungle. They didn't push the pace and they stopped to check different things out. Donna was enthralled. She really did feel like she was one of the explorers in the stories that her grandfather used to tell her. She asked the Doctor enough questions that she showed him that she was neither bored nor totally dim witted when it came to things like this.

They had been walking through the jungle for about an hour and had probably covered over half a mile as they ambled and explored rather than hiked. On a tree Donna saw a weird looking creature, she wasn't even sure if it was a creature or rather one of the strange plants they had seen sending invasive roots into the trunks of the trees to tap into their nutrition as parasitic plants. Donna had thought it quite violent and unusual until the Doctor had suggested that it wasn't much different to what the mistletoe plant did on Earth. This one appeared to be hooked onto the trunk of the tree and was covered in protective spines.

"Doctor, come and look at this!" Donna exclaimed as they had both been drawing each other to look at the various things they spotted as they moved through the forest.

"What have you got?" the Doctor bounced over toward her. Donna peered at the creature or parasitic plant as it seemed to ripple. It rippled again. "Get out the way!" the Doctor hollered as he saw what Donna was looking at. He dived over her, pushing her backwards down into the leaf litter. She let out a shocked cry of pain and went to slap her hand over her shoulder where it just felt like she'd been stung by a highly viscous bee or wasp. "No don't! Don't touch it!" the Doctor exclaimed and caught her wrist.

"God, that hurts!" Donna exclaimed as she saw that she had one of the spines from the plant protruding out of her shoulder.

"You need to keep still," the Doctor told her.

"Just get it out! God, its stinging?!"

"I know, I'm sorry. I will get it out but you need to watch," the Doctor insisted. He seemed to tense for a moment and there was a slight pop and whistle that seemed to come from behind him as he was still lying on top of Donna, pinning her down, and it wasn't exactly the most comfortable of places to be lying. There was a tree root under the leaf litter and it wasn't just breeching the ground, it was breeching her in the most awkward of places. The Doctor twisted slightly on top of her and there was a further rapid series of popping and whistles.

"What's that sound?" Donna asked.

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing. Look at the spine," the Doctor told Donna. "Don't move your shoulder. It is hollow and it's filled with a toxin. If you move then your muscle will contract around the hollow shaft of the spine and that will draw the toxin down, and we want to avoid that. The spine itself is coated in the same poison, but not in much and it is what makes it sting. As long as you're not allergic it's nothing more serious than a bee sting. So, you have to be careful when you take it out," the Doctor advised Donna. He reached up to take the spine and there was another rapid pop and whistle. The Doctor paused. "When you take the spine you can see the black tip to it. You just grip hold of the black tip and ease it out in the direction that it has gone in. It's not barbed unless it triggered so it will just come out again."

"Get on with it already would you?" Donna grumbled.

"Sorry." The Doctor gripped the black tip of the spine and pulled it out of Donna's shoulder. A drop of blood rose from the wound and it dribbled across her shoulder and into the strap of her vests. There was already an angry red area around the sting. "It's going to be sore and maybe a bit itchy like a standard insect sting for a while, but you'll be fine. The poison sac is still intact look," the Doctor advised Donna and showed her that the spine still had the small bulb on the side that seemed to be filled with a yellowish fluid.

There was another pop and whistle and this time the Doctor visibly flinched and dropped his head down slightly triggering another two pops and whistles. Donna was too busy inspecting her shoulder to actually notice. "I'm glad that thing only spits out one spine at a time!" Donna exclaimed. "That bloody hurts. You can get off me now, Time Boy, fat lot of good you did too. Now I'm all dirty and I still got stung!"

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed. "Sorry about that."

"Come on then, off?" Donna suggested. She pushed up on the Doctor to get him to rise off her. There was another pop and whistle and the Doctor grunted. "Doctor?"

"Funny thing about spine weasels," the Doctor commented. "They never just shoot one spine. Fairly sure one would be enough and then it would have more defences, but no, got to shoot the whole lot. Leave themselves defenceless. Total over-kill," he ground out the end of the sentence through gritted teeth.

"Did it sting you too?" Donna realised.

"Just a bit," the Doctor confirmed. "Going to need your help… to get the spines out?"

"Can you let me out from under you?" Donna asked him. The Doctor tried to ease himself up further and there was a further series of pops and whistles. "What is that?" she asked him, but the Doctor just grimaced.

Donna wriggled out from underneath the Doctor. She expected to see one maybe two or three of the spines sticking out the back of his shoulder or something. She didn't expect him to be looking like a Time Lord pin cushion. There must have been near a hundred of them all sticking into his back, there was a concentration of them over his shoulder, but he had them all down his back, a few in his neck, there was even one sticking out the back of his ear.

He groaned as he laid down without Donna under him. As he moved there were further pops and whistles and Donna saw a line of spines sticking out of him all twitch. The little sacs on the top of the spines deflated rapidly and the spine whistled. It was the air being forced out the top of the spine as the poison was pushed down it into the Doctor.


	2. Chapter 2

"Doctor?" Donna wasn't quite sure what to do.

"I need you to… take them out… please Donna?"

"They're going off!" Donna exclaimed as she saw another few of them twitch and heard the accompanying pop and whistle.

"Toxin coating the spines starts to cause the muscles to go into spasm. The muscle spasms cause the spines to compress and releases the toxin," the Doctor explained quietly.

"I have to grip them at the top?"

"Yes, and then just pull in the direction that they are going in, don't flex the spine, that will trigger it as well," the Doctor advised.

"Okay," Donna knew how much the one in her shoulder had hurt. How much it had hurt when the Doctor had pulled it out. How it was still stinging and throbbing and felt like her whole shoulder was going to burst into flames, and that was just one that had not triggered.

"Donna?" the Doctor groaned. "Take the ones that have not gone off, out first."

"Okay, right, good idea." Donna gingerly took the black tip in one of the spines that was protruding out of the back of his left shoulder. The poison sac was still intact on that one. She gripped the tip of it and then gave it a sharp tug. It came out easily. She had a sudden thought and she went and grabbed two flat glossy leaves. She put the spine on top of it so it was not lost in the undergrowth. "What does the poison do?" Donna asked him.

"It's not too serious," the Doctor assured her. "Not for me," he offered. "You'd have a hard time with more than four or five of them if they triggered. I can metabolise it. It will make me feel pretty rotten for a while, it will cause pain and headaches once it really gets going. Dependent upon the actual species and make up it could cause nausea and an upset stomach too, but it's not going to do me any harm and my systems will cope with it. In a human it could cause some nasty renal damage and in strong doses it could be fatal. My body will cope with it and then I will just excrete it and that will be it done for. I think our trip into the jungle will have to be over for a couple of days though," the Doctor suggested with an apologetic tone. He then grimaced and hissed as three more spines triggered as the toxin was starting to make his muscles twitch.

Donna was trying to get the spines out as quickly as possible, but she slowed down when she inadvertently set one off. She apologised profusely as she tried to drag it out at the same time as it was triggering. She tugged at it when it seemed to get stuck. The Doctor yelped when it ripped his skin as it came out spewing an oily fluid onto his shirt. Donna put that on the other leaf. She wanted to be able to check how many of them had gone in and how many had triggered.

She was pulling them out through the linen of his cream shirt. There were several spots of blood appearing on the fabric now, making it look polka dot. Donna tenderly took the ones out the back of his neck and out of his ear. They were on bare flesh and she could see the angry round red welts that had been left. They had merged together on his neck. She pulled left one in at top of his shoulder. It had triggered and she saw that the welt around the spine was a deep purple bruised colour. It looked incredibly sore.

"Donna," the Doctor groaned. "You need to… hurry up a… bit." He could feel the muscle spasms starting to come and he wanted to be back in the TARDIS before they hit him properly.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to rush and set them off." Donna gripped another spine and pulled it out. It remained intact. Donna increased her speed. Working across his back taking two or three of the spines out and then putting them on the leaf rather than doing one at a time. She had all the ones out that had not triggered.

"Okay, we're down to the ones that have triggered now," Donna advised. She grabbed one of them in the middle of his back as she had done with the others and just went to ease it out of his flesh but it didn't want to come out. "It doesn't want to come out."

"The spine splits when it triggers to form a barb so they can't be brushed off until it's delivered the full dose," the Doctor advised. "You're just going to have to yank them."

"Yank?" Donna picked the spine up that she had triggered and she saw what the Doctor meant. The bottom of the spine where it was embedded in the flesh had kind of split and sheared away from the tip. It had turned it into a barb? "What if the bits get left in?"

"Then we can deal with that when we get back to the TARDIS, but while they are in they the spines are covered in the toxin and it will still be getting into my blood stream," the Doctor advised.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Donna apologised as she took a firm grip on the tip of the spine in the middle of his back. She yanked it out. She could feel it grabbing onto the Doctor's flesh as she dragged it out of him. It then got caught on his shirt and she couldn't pull it through without ripping the cotton. She didn't care about that. She could take his shirt off when all of the spines were out. She grabbed the next spine and yanked it out, ripping his flesh and making him bleed. The Doctor was pressing his forehead into his hands down into the leaf litter trying not to acknowledge the horrendous pain, not only of the number of stings, the toxins that were now raging through his body, but also the barbed spines being yanked out of his back.

"How many… left to go?" the Doctor asked weakly. He was starting to tremble and he couldn't help it. It was a mix of the toxins and the pain. Donna counted quickly.

"Only twelve," she lied. There were thirty two of them still sticking out of his back. All of them had delivered a dose of the toxin and all of them were going to be barbed. She knew that she was ripping his back to shreds. She could see the blood spreading out into his shirt around each of the barbed spines that remained in the fabric.

The Doctor silently counted the twelve spines. His back was one horrible fiery pain so he could not tell where spines were and were not. He went to push himself up. "Oh, sorry, Doctor, there is another twelve there," Donna commented quietly and she put her hand on his shoulder and pushed him down. His shoulder felt red hot and inflamed through the fabric when he normally felt cool to the touch. He cried out both at the touch and also at the idea of there being another twelve. "They'll be out in a jiffy," Donna insisted. She had managed to block some of the horror of having to do it to him and she carried on pulling them out. "Last eight," she assured him once she had removed that twelve. She pulled them all out. "That is all of them."

"Lying?"

"No." Donna caressed the back of his head. "I need to take your shirt off though, I couldn't get the barbed ones through the fabric. Can you get up?"

"I think so," the Doctor gingerly got up to his feet. He felt a little light headed and his back was agony. He knew he didn't have long until the toxins really started to take hold. The spines that were still in his shirt scratched across his raw stung and ripped flesh and made him hiss. Donna undid the laces at the front of the Doctor's shirt and then she pulled it up over his head for him. She moved round to have a look at his back and then wished she hadn't. Through the back of his shoulders and down the middle of his back the angry sting marks had all but joined together. There were stings on top of stings, some were bright red and angry, others were deep purple and even more vicious. His entire back was bobbled and lumpy with the inflammation, and there was holes where she had ripped the barbed ones out. They were leaking blood that had been smeared as they had taken his shirt off, but in those still bleeding it was now running down his back.

"Have you got anything in your pockets that is going to help with that?" Donna asked him. "What about the anti-venom kit you said you have?" she checked with him. "Is there anything you can take or that I can rub into your back? Sting cream or anything? What about an antihistamine?"

"I don't think it will work," the Doctor commented. He fished in his pocket and pulled out the anti-venom kit. There would be no harm in taking a dose of the generic anti-toxin. He supposed it might take the edge off. He found the right one, but then his hands were shaking so much he almost dropped it down into the leaf litter.

"Give it here," Donna took the kit.

"It's the light blue one," the Doctor advised. "Just push the cylinder into the hole at the rear of the injector until it clicks." He watched as Donna did that. "Twist the end until a three appears next to the dose line."

"Okay, I've done that."

"Now, just press it against my thigh and fire the trigger," the Doctor advised. He stood as still as he could as Donna gave him the drugs. He flinched, but he didn't yell. "Thanks, well done. Hardly hurt at all," he fibbed. Donna put the kit back together.

"That will stop you getting poisoned right?"

"Weeell, I already am poisoned, but, it will take the edge off it maybe. I have got some cream you can put on your shoulder if you want?" he asked. It was only when the Doctor reminded her that she had got a spine in her shoulder as well that she realised just how much it was stinging. It felt like it was on fire.

"What about your back?"

"I can't use it. There is stuff in the TARDIS that I can use," the Doctor advised.

"Well, it's no bloody good there. Genius Spaceman you are? Get turned into a toxic porcupine in the middle of the jungle and the stuff you need is in the TARDIS?" Donna scolded and the Doctor smiled weakly. "Come on, we better get you back. Do you want to put your shirt back on?"

"I think I'd rather leave it off so it doesn't rub as I walk."

"Have you got any dressings or anything? Some of them are bleeding quite a bit." Donna winced on his behalf as she saw that the waist band of his shorts was starting to turn deep crimson with the blood that was running down his back.

"It is better they bleed," the Doctor offered. "It might flush some of the toxins out," the Doctor suggested. He knew it was wishful thinking but he didn't want to waste any time with Donna fiddling with dressings. He just wanted to be back in the TARDIS. As he turned his head swum and he almost lost his balance. Donna caught his arm.

"Are you going to make it back?" Donna checked suddenly even more concerned about him.

"Yeah, fine," the Doctor offered. "Let's go." He caught sight of the spine weasel still sitting on the tree though now minus all of its spines. "You know," he commented and went to the small creature that now looked like a flattened fluffy mole stuck to the tree. "That was completely uncalled for." He told it. "We were only just having a look, and now, look at you. Completely defenceless," the Doctor commented. He went to poke it to prove his point knowing that the spine weasel was stuck to the tree and would not be able to move away. That didn't mean that it could not turn its head and when the Doctor went to poke it he lunged and sunk a mouthful of razor sharp teeth into the end of his finger.

The Doctor yelped and pulled away. "Not that defenceless then?" Donna commented.

"Ow?" the Doctor whined. Blood poured from the deep teeth marks in the side of his finger where he had been bitten. He was fairly sure that it had punctured his finger tip right down to the bone. Donna got a bit of tissue and wrapped it around his finger.

"At least you didn't try to lick it." Donna chuckled.

"I don't like spine weasels," the Doctor grumbled miserably.

"I think it is pretty clear that spine weasels don't like you much either, at least that one doesn't."

The Doctor grumbled and tried to glare at Donna, but his vision was blurring out slightly and he just ended up blinking rapidly to try and clear it. "I think we should be heading back."

"Have you got a plastic bag or something in your pocket?" she asked. The Doctor gingerly got her a small bag out and then watched as Donna collected up the spines that she had pulled out of the Doctor's back from the leaves she had put them on. He was surprised to see so many. There was no wonder he felt like his back had been scored with knives and then washed in vinegar. It was taking a lot of effort not to break down crying and the toxins were still warring in his body trying to take over as his systems fought them. Some of the symptoms he was soon going to be experiencing were due to his body fighting others would be due to his body being fought. He knew he wasn't going to have a very good time over the few hours, but, if Donna had been hit full on as he had been then she'd likely be dead by now. She had done well to get as many of the spines out as she had without them being triggered, but he knew at least thirty five of them had gone off. That was at least 35 doses of poison.

The Doctor groaned as he staggered slightly and had to put his hand up to the bark of the tree behind the spine weasel in order to stop himself from falling. The blood from his finger had soaked through the tissue and as he braced himself, taking long controlling breaths, the blood trickled back up his hand and wrist to from where it dripped down onto the ground.

"Doctor?" Donna was concerned for him. She had no doubt that he was in a worse state than he was letting her see. She knew it was serious. If it was not serious then he'd have been jumping around complaining about it. He was pale and she could see the muscles across his back trembling and twitching in spasm. When the muscle across his shoulder twitched one of the wounds from a barbed spine opened and closed like it was talking, each time it shut its mouth it squeezed out another dribble of blood.

"How are you feeling, Donna?" the Doctor asked her seriously. "Any dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, headache, aversion to light, double vision, muscle cramps, stomach pain, nausea, excessive pain, urgent need to defecate, or to urinate?"

"No, Doctor, I'm fine," Donna assured him. "Is that what is coming for you?"

"Some maybe, all maybe, don't know, won't know until…" the Doctor started trying to sound confident and positive about it. "Donna?"

"Spaceman?"

"It's really hurting me," he admitted quietly.

"I'm not surprised. I know how much one hurts…" Donna started.

"Do you want some cream?"

"No, Dumbo, I want to get you back to the TARDIS where you're safe," Donna commented.

"Think that is a good idea," the Doctor offered. "Good idea." He managed to straighten up from the tree. He got his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "We didn't come this far in the most direct route. We kind of weaved in and out a bit as we explored," the Doctor advised Donna. He adjusted the sonic screwdriver. "I've linked sonic to the TARDIS. She's just over half a mile that way," the Doctor pointed. It was a slight angle to the way in which they had arrived and the way that Donna thought they would be heading back. If she'd led the way then they'd have missed the TARDIS completely.

"Of course, you can only go as far as the beach and then the TARDIS is there anyway, so it won't matter if we're a bit off course," the Doctor offered. "As long as we now keep the mountain to our right."

"Are you okay to walk?" Donna asked him.

"Are you offering me a piggy back?" the Doctor asked her.

"No," Donna scoffed then laughed. The Doctor laughed as well. "I think you need to build a come and get me protocol into the TARDIS," Donna advised the Doctor as they started walking back toward the beach. This time Donna had the scythe and she cut through the thickest bits of vegetation. She kept the Doctor talking as they went, but within fifteen minutes he was starting to sound a bit short of breath.

"Do you need to stop for a moment?" Donna asked him as she turned and looked at him rather than where they were going. His alabaster complexion was only marked by smudges of feverish red across his cheek bones and the darkening circles surrounding his tearing eyes. He was breathing quite quickly in an attempt to keep up with Donna even though she was not walking very quickly. Now she had stopped he mourned the loss of concentration as he had been focusing only on putting his feet in the same place as Donna had been putting hers. One step at a time had seemed manageable and now she had stopped and worse she was offering him the chance to stop. His entire body was screaming at him to stop, just to stop, not to stop for a moment, but to stop.

"Can't…" the Doctor gasped. He didn't stop moving his feet. He edged forwards. "Keep going."

"Doctor?"

"Please, just keep going."

"You're worrying me."

"Don't worry… just keep going," he breathed.

"Do you want to go first?" Donna asked hoping that he would accept so that she could keep a closer eye on him.

"Need to follow." The Doctor shook his head. It was the worst thing he could have done. Worse than stopping for the motion in his head triggered the dizziness he had been fighting and a kaleidoscope of colours burst into his vision blinding him as the forest swirled around him. He felt like he was being spun round on the spot, faster and faster, with no consequence for the pain he was in or how his feet were being rooted.

Donna rushed forwards to grab him as the Doctor's eyes tipped backward and slid closed as his knees bent and he folded down toward the ground. Donna caught him, preventing him from crashing down, but she felt the sticky blood on his back on her hands and forearms as she grabbed him. She didn't want him to end up lying on his back on the forest floor as all the bits of rotting leaf and the tiny insects running in and out of every centimetre of it if you looked long enough would end up sticking to the bloody mess.

"Doctor?" Donna held him as he sagged against her. His breathing remained ragged and she knew she had to get him back to the TARDIS. She also knew that she couldn't carry him. "Come on, Dumbo, you need to wake up," she told him. "Come on, you can't stay here," she insisted. "Doctor? Come on, please?" Donna didn't have the heart to be deliberately mean to him. She knew there was no doubt that he had done this to protect her and she expected that if she'd taken the same kind of attack as he had that she'd be in a much worse condition. That didn't mean that she wasn't worried about him. She was. "Come on, please, Doctor, it can't be that much further to the TARDIS now and then you can get in your nice comfy bed, but you can't sleep here."

The Doctor groaned. It was a deep pain filled groan and it made Donna's heart ache for him. She held him, rubbing the back of his head, as she knelt and supported his whole weight as he half knelt, half laid, and half sat against her, and she knew that was three halves and he'd have cajoled her for thinking it, but he was only semi-conscious and groaning into her bosom so he had no right to cajole her about anything right then.

"Doctor? Can you hear me?" Donna asked him. He groaned. "Come on, you need to get back up, it's not bedtime yet." She tried to pull him upward a bit so he'd get the message but he didn't budge. He simply rested against her, breathing quickly, and moaning his discomfort. She put her hand on his back lightly. She could still feel the heat from it. It felt like he was on fire and his moaning hitched up a little as a result of her touch. She'd hurt him. "I'm sorry." Donna kissed him on the top of the head. "You need to get up, Doctor. We need to get you back to the TARDIS."

"Donna?" the Doctor whimpered quietly.

"Hey, come on Spaceman, you can do better than this. We need to get back to the TARDIS."

"Urgh." The Doctor lurched to the side. Donna thought it was a strange unfocused attempt to rise to his feet again, but he braced himself on his knees and one arm. He clamped his left arm across his stomach as it cramped intolerably, if he had not been in the process of emptying his stomach onto the forest floor he would have cried out at the pain of the cramps twisting his guts. "Oh God?" the Doctor gasped in despair in between body jerking retches.

"You're going to be alright," Donna assured him. "Try to take deep breaths." Donna hooked an arm under him to keep him up when he started to sag down. He was still retching and dry heaving. His stomach empty but not allowing him the chance to regain his breath as he wheezed and heaved. The sound of him retching, his breath catching uncomfortably in the back of his throat, made Donna feel quite sick herself.

"Need… to sleep," the Doctor decided and started to allow himself to go back down.

"No, come on, you're not going to sleep here," Donna told him. "Least of all because you're going to end up lying in your sick and I am not cleaning that up. Anything else, but I'm not doing Spaceman sick, okay?"

"'kay."

"So, come on, we're not far from the TARDIS now, you need to get up," Donna insisted. "Now," she tried to be more firm with him. "If you do not get up now Martian boy then I am going to leave you here," she warned him.

"You'd… not leave… me," the Doctor whimpered.

"Wouldn't I?" Donna threatened. She released her grip on him very slightly so it might have felt to him like she was going. "You have got the count of three to get up and then I am gone. You hear me? There is a beautiful sandy beach just through those trees and the TARDIS is parked there and there is food and tea and all the good things, and instead you want to go traipsing through the jungle looking for lost scrolls, well, I have had it, so you either get up right now, or I'm going back to the TARDIS. I'm going to get myself a large glass of mixed tropical fruit juices, loads of ice, and a curly straw and I'm going to go and lie on that beach and leave you here. Count of three, you understand?" Donna asked him. He didn't answer her. "One… two…"

"Donna?" The Doctor groaned. "Don't leave… me." He tried to get his feet under him. He didn't want her to leave him in the jungle. She wrapped her arms around him, trying to avoid the bloodiest and sorest areas of his back. He could hardly stand up straight and when he tried the cramps seizing his abdomen visibly clenched. They were like solid ropes under his skin and he gritted his teeth, doubling over and almost going back down to his knees again.

"No, come on." Donna held him up. "It will pass," she assured him. She hoped it would pass. "I've got you, okay," Donna assured him. She dragged his arm over her shoulders and hung onto his wrist, then she slung her other arm around his lower back, grabbing hold of the waist of his shorts. "Come on Spaceman, you can do it, we've not got far to go now. How about you get sonic out again and double check we're still going in the right direction?" Donna suggested. She held him up as he did that. Pointing it.

"Three hundred… yards… that way."

"There, see, that isn't far at all is it? You can make three hundred yards," Donna insisted. She made sure she had a good grip of him and they set off. Some of the time he made a concerted effort to walk, but other times she had to slow because spasms ripped through him. Twice she had to stop because they were so severe she feared he was going to break something as he contorted and cried out as his muscles racked him. Other times it left him leaning on her as she near enough dragged him through the jungle. His breathing was a concern. It was getting worse and he made very little effort to hold his head up at all.

By the time they got to the top of the boulders that separated the jungle from the beach the Doctor was practically unconscious against her. He occasionally bleated in pain or he cried out if it was particularly bad. He was shaking uncontrollably and he was drenched in sweat. Donna was terrified that he had not been truthful with her about being able to cope with the poison and that he was going to die on her.

"God? How are we going to do this?" Donna worried. "Doctor?" she was still holding him upright. If she let him down she didn't know if she would ever get him back up again, but he was more out of it than with it. "Doctor, can you hear me?"

"Donna… we're nearly there… I can feel… her… she's close," he stepped forward with a renewed energy to reach his TARDIS. That was all he needed. His TARDIS. His TARDIS and his bed and then he could sleep and wake up and it will all be finished with and it will all be done.

"No!" Donna tried to hold him back, but the ground was dropping away and he started to skid and slide. She had two of her fingers tucked through the belt loops on his shorts so as she could not hold him back she couldn't let go either. They both tumbled over the boulders and onto the sandy ground underneath them. Donna cried out as pain exploded in her hand and wrist and shot through her arm as she landed awkwardly.

"Donna?" the Doctor moaned. He rolled across the mix of sand and leaf litter. It clung to the sticky blood on him to the point where it looked like his back was a lump of steak bread-crumbed ready for the oven. The Doctor curled on his side, crying out as he clamped both arms across his abdomen. He tried to gulp in air, but his lungs felt like they were bursting in his chest. He retched but he couldn't get up in order to be sick properly and he started to splutter and choke.

Donna couldn't allow a sprained wrist to stop her. She ignored it and went to him. She managed to get him up onto his knees, hooking her arm around him from behind to hold him up so he wasn't face down in the sand. They still had another hundred yards to go to the safety of the TARDIS. "Come on Time Boy, last bit now," Donna commented. "Did you hurt yourself when you fell over?"

"Did… I fall… over?" he wheezed.

"Yeah." Donna sighed. She couldn't grip him with her right hand. When she tried to move her wrist a sharp pain leapt up through her arm, and there was a dull, throbbing, gnawing ache settling into it even when she held it still. She didn't bother looking at it properly, she just had to get the Doctor to the TARDIS. He was so covered in sand now that trying to keep the wounds over his back clean was pointless. She grabbed hold of him the best she could. "Come on. Time to go."

"Where… are we going?"

"Can you feel the TARDIS?" Donna asked him.

"Yeah."

"That is where we are going. To your TARDIS. She is calling to you," Donna suggested. The Doctor tried to get to his feet. With his effort combined with Donna's brute force she got him up. Keeping him up was another matter. She couldn't grip him properly and within twenty yards he'd fallen again. He curled up. He was shaking violently and breathing in short rapid gasps. He grunted in pain and writhed uncomfortably. "Come on, Doctor, please?" Donna pleaded as her own tears finally broke. "We need to get to the TARDIS?"

"Don't… cry…" the Doctor whispered.

"Then get up, please?" Donna tried to drag him up but he cried out. He made as much effort as his body would allow him to get up but then he simply collapsed back down. His eyes were closed and his body went slack. He was still breathing, but Donna could tell that he had passed out.


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't that far to the TARDIS now. She was in sight. Donna hooked her arms under his and dragged him. The dry sand made it easier to move him as she dragged him. She got her key out and opened the door and then dragged him into the ship. Letting him down on the ground, then she did all she could assume was the best thing she could do. She took the handbrake off the TARDIS. Then she got the mobile phone off the console. "Come on old, girl. I know you can do it. Please, get us to Martha?"

As soon as Donna heard the phone was ringing and the time rotor started to move she went back to the Doctor. He was out cold. She had left him lying on his back and his head had lolled to the side. His breathing was ragged but his chest was still going up and down. The TARDIS touched down with the tiniest of jolts so not to hurt her passengers any more. Donna went out of the TARDIS. The TARDIS had landed in Martha's bedroom.

"It's night time," Donna commented quietly.

"Again," Martha confirmed. "Three ten." She turned the lamp on at her bedside and took the state that Donna was in. She was covered in sand and had left a trail of sand across her bedroom carpet. She was gingerly holding her arm across her chest and she had dried blood on her shoulder which looked very red and swollen as if she had an acute infection set in already. "You're hurt," Martha didn't ask the question. She didn't need to ask she could see it.

"Don't worry about me, the Doctor is in a bad way," Donna commented and led Martha into the TARDIS. The Doctor was just inside the doorway. He was covered in sand and was only breathing very shallowly. It was clear he was unconscious.

"What happened?"

"He's been poisoned," Donna commented. She got the bag of spines that she had bagged. "These got shot into his back. Thirty seven of them released a poisonous sac into his skin. He said that he'd be able to metabolise it all, but he got really sick on the way back. He has been throwing up and getting cramps and then he lost consciousness just before we got back here."

"Okay, stay with him, I'm going to go and get a stretcher to get him through to the infirmary," Martha told her.

Martha went through to the infirmary. She got the stretcher that was in there and she wheeled it through to the flight deck. The TARDIS had been kind and positioned the infirmary close so she didn't have to go far. She put the stretcher on its lowest setting. The wheels went up into a recess so it was only three inches above the level of the floor. It meant Martha could more or less roll the Doctor onto it without doing him or her any damage and without having to ask Donna for assistance.

"Come on then," Martha clicked the stretcher back up to height again and then wheeled the Doctor on it through to the sickbay. Donna followed. "How about you sit down on there and rest for a moment while I just check him out."

"Is he going to be alright?" Donna asked.

"I'm not sure yet," Martha commented. "But, I'm inclined to believe him if he said that he will metabolise the toxin. What was it that got him?"

"He called it a spine weasel," Donna commented.

"A spine weasel?" Martha checked.

"It was my fault. I was the one that disturbed it and he pushed me out the way. I got one of the spines in my shoulder. It hurt like Hell, Martha. It's like the worst bee sting ever and he got it out of my shoulder before it released the secondary toxin. He had eighty four of them in his back altogether and thirty seven of them went off and released the secondary toxin."

"They all went into his back?"

"Yeah, it's a state. I had to pull them all out for him and the ones that the poison got delivered split so that they became barbed. He told me just to yank them out. They cut him and… his back is awful. I tried to keep it clean but he couldn't put his shirt back on because it rubbed and then he fell in the sand."

"Okay, I'll have a look at that once I've made sure he's stable," Martha commented. She got an oxygen mask and put it over his nose and mouth getting the TARDIS to automatically adjust the flow for him. She then cleaned and sterilised a spot on his forearm and slid a needle in to give him fluids. "So, what is with the shorts?" Martha asked indicating to the unusual attire for the Doctor.

"We have been at the beach. Today we went off into the jungle in order to look for some lost treasures," Donna advised. "Like proper explorers."

"That sounds like fun," Martha commented.

"It was, until it got to the spine weasel," Donna offered and then sighed.

Martha wrapped a ligature around the top of the Doctor's arm and pulled it tight. Then she slid a needle into the vein in the crook of his elbow and took a sample of blood. She inserted the phial into a slot on a machine in the TARDIS. "When I work at the hospital there is a lab to do these tests and they take a few hours. The TARDIS will tell us what toxins he has in his blood stream within seconds and will also tell us what we need to give him to make sure he recovers."

"He was in a lot of pain," Donna offered.

"Until I know what the toxin is then I don't want to give him any pain relief," Martha commented and Donna nodded her understanding. The machine that had received the Doctor's blood beeped and information came up on the screen that Martha scrutinised. "Well, he wasn't lying when he said that he'd metabolise it. He will. I don't think he was expecting to get such a high dose of it though," Martha commented.

"The TARDIS has given me a list of things to give him which will speed the process along a bit. She confirms he will metabolise it and then excrete it naturally. We don't treat the toxin just the symptoms, so I can give him some pain relief, some fluid, a muscle relaxant to reduce the cramps, something to stop him being sick, and then something to keep him asleep for a few hours. Then when he wakes up he should be feeling pretty much recovered if a little tired and sore for a few days. The TARDIS says there is an ointment we can put on his back and on your shoulder to reduce the heat and inflammation of the spine stings."

"So, he's going to be alright?"

"Yes, he's going to be fine," Martha confirmed. "Are you still okay sitting there while I finish sorting him out?"

"Yeah."

"Give me a shout if you need some painkillers," Martha suggested. "I'd kick my boots off if I was you and put your legs up properly." She went over to Donna when she saw her struggling to undo the laces on her hiking boots with one hand. She flicked her gloves off and unfastened the boots for her and then got a pillow off an adjacent bed. She got Donna to spin round so she was sitting on the bed properly with her feet up and then put the pillow in her lap to rest her arm on it.

"I'm okay," Donna commented.

"You may find that as the adrenaline starts to wear off that the pain gets worse. If it does then shout okay? He's not in such a critical condition that I can't spend a few minutes assisting you, but I do want to check his back and make sure that the wounds are clean," Martha offered. She went back to the Doctor. He was lying on his back on the stretcher, so she got him up to the right height as the bed. She pushed the stretcher so the mattresses were touching and then she rolled him over. He was fairly light so she didn't struggle more than to be able to reach right across the bed to the stretched on the other side. She rolled him onto his front, made sure that his head was tipped to the side and that his airway was still clear and that the oxygen mask remained in place. He had left blood and dirt on the paper sheet covering the stretcher and Martha winced when she saw the state of his back. It was going to take a lot of cleaning.

Martha went and got all the drugs that the TARDIS suggested that he needed and she gave him the required doses. It would mean that he had decent pain relief and that he'd remain asleep as she tended to him. She used a small brush to clean as much of the sand away from his back as she could. She swept it straight down onto the floor, apologising to the TARDIS as she did. Once the only sand on his back was that crusted into the blood Martha started with a bowl of water and sponges. She had to change the water regularly as it very quickly fouled with blood and strange coloured sand.

When she had gone right over his back with the sponge water she then went to gauzes and had to clean out each of the wounds on his back where the spines had been ripped out. She started a lot of them bleeding again and she just pressed sterile gauzes to them initially to keep the blood from running too far. The whole of his back was solid and bright red as result of the stings that individually looked like a bee sting or a mosquito bite to which there had been a strong reaction. They had all joined together, but around each of the holes in his back where the flesh had been ripped there was a circular deep purple bruise as the result of the toxin.

Martha checked each of the small wounds individually. She dabbed antiseptic over his whole back. Eleven of the rips in his back were such that she thought it best just to put a small stitch in them to hold them closed. The other twenty six were not as severe and would heal without. She coated his entire back in the salve that the TARDIS had given her and then took lengths of bandage that she soaked in the same cooling ointment and she draped them over his back so that it would stay cool and covered. She noticed that there was a spot of blood on his left ear and the lobe had swollen so it was four times the size as his right ear. She winced on his behalf. It was red hot with the inflammation. She dabbed it with antiseptic and the cooling salve but there was little else that she could do for him with that.

Martha took another sample of the Doctor's blood and got the TARDIS to analyse it. The ship confirmed that he was continuing to metabolise the toxin. With the drugs that she had given him he'd sleep for between two and four hours and then the worse effects of the toxins would be done for him.

"Right, it's your turn," Martha told Donna as she went over to her bed. "The TARDIS is monitoring the Doctor's breathing and his blood oxygen levels are good. He's comfortable and sleeping and will remain asleep for a few hours. When he wakes up the worst will be over for him. So, how about we have a look at you. How did you get injured?" Martha asked Donna.

"We both fell over some boulders. I had tucked some fingers through the belt loops on his shorts so that I could help to keep him up and it got wrenched when we fell," Donna commented.

"How is it feeling?"

"It's throbbing pretty badly," Donna admitted.

"Whereabouts?"

"From my fingers, through my hand, and my wrist."

"Okay." Martha left Donna's elbow resting on the pillow, but she took hold of her forearm just below her wrist and eased it up a little, supporting her hand the best she could. Donna gasped. "Where is the pain?"

"My wrist. I must have sprained it or something."

"I think you've done more than sprain it, Donna," Martha commented. "Can you cock your wrist at all?" she asked. She went to assist Donna in making the movement but the pain leapt through her wrist and she shook her head. "Okay, we're going to need to get the TARDIS to take some scans of your wrist," Martha suggested. "Can you wriggle your fingers?" Martha checked. The ring and middle fingers on her hand looked thick with swelling as well.

Martha got the TARDIS to do some scans of Donna's wrist, hand, and fingers. She examined the scans that came up. The TARDIS took a lot of the stress out of diagnosis because the anomalies were highlighted on the films when they showed on the screen. "So, what is the prognosis?" Donna asked Martha.

"Well, you've got a broken wrist and two broken fingers," Martha told Donna.

"No way?" Donna looked bemused. "Seriously. It doesn't even hurt that much."

"It will," Martha commented. "You're still running on adrenaline and probably in a bit of shock. I can guarantee you if we don't sort you out that in an hour or so you'd be in a lot more discomfort than you are now."

"Can you sort it out then?"

"Yeah," Martha assured her and smiled. "It's the scaphoid bone in your wrist that is broken and that is a fairly common break to have if you fall onto an outstretched hand. Your middle finger and your ring finger are broken. Are they the fingers that you had looped through the Doctor's shorts?"

"Yeah," Donna confirmed and Martha nodded.

"Now, the scaphoid bone is slightly displaced so I need to push that back into position. It's easy to do and your ring finger needs to be set properly. Your middle finger isn't too bad. So, what I'm going to do is give you some pain relief, and then I'm going to give you some local anaesthesia. Get you all in the right position and then I'll apply a temporary cast and splint your fingers. You've also got a sprained the structures on the outside of your wrist so it is going to swell up quite a lot. So, once the swelling has gone down we will be able to put a more secure cast on and you'll be able to start to use your arm as much as the cast and the pain allow, but until the swelling has gone down it's going to be bulky cast and sling I'm afraid." Martha warned her. "Have you had morphine before?"

"Morphine? I'm sure I don't need that." Donna commented.

"When I start to pull you around it's going to be much more painful. I'd strongly recommend that you have some morphine. I can just give you a small dose to start with and see how you go and then if it gets too much we can give you some more, but although I am going to give you some local anaesthetic as well, I will need to move your wrist around to actually put the anaesthetic into the right place and that is going to be sore, Donna."

"Okay," Donna agreed. Martha went over to the pharmacy in the TARDIS and got some morphine. She cleaned the crook of Donna's arm and then put a canola in. She taped it into place.

"That is just so we don't have to keep on fiddling round when you need a top up," Martha offered. "I'm just going to give you 5mg to start with then," she offered. "It may still make you feel a little bit woozy, but this TARDIS version has a drug in it to stop you feeling sick ready mixed, so you can just go with it, alright."

Martha pushed the drugs into the canola. She put them in slowly as she knew that it stung a bit if put in too quickly, though Donna seemed quite able to cope with discomfort. She had got some lignocaine out of the pharmacy cupboard as well and she drew plenty of that up into a syringe. She had to make sure that Donna's arm, wrist, and hand was clean first though. As soon as she'd got her into position she was going to be wanting to apply the temporary cast.

She went and got a deep bowl of warm water. "We need to get all the blood and gunk off your hand," Martha warned. "I take it that it is his blood and not yours?" Martha checked and Donna nodded. "Okay, I just want you to dip your hand in here," she offered and put the bowl on Donna's lap. Donna grimaced as she dipped her hand and wrist into the bowl and she had to push it against the water to get it to submerge.

"Do you want some more pain relief?" Martha checked, but Donna shook her head. "You don't have to be scared about having the drugs," Martha confirmed to her. "You can have more if you need it. In fact, I am going to top you up a little," Martha insisted. "I don't want to be hurting you if I don't have to be." She pushed another 5mg of the morphine in through the canola.

Martha left Donna's hand to soak in the water for a couple of minutes. While she was doing that she cleaned her shoulder, applied antiseptic to the sting, and then the ointment the TARDIS had given them. Once that was done her hand had been soaking so she carefully sponged her down. She put a towel on the pillow on and then got Donna to lift her hand back out and onto the towel. Martha used some gauze to clean some more stubborn bits of blood and dirt from between her fingers and around the creases in the palm of her hand. When she had to clean around the base of her middle and ring finger Donna bit her lip and rested her head back trying not to think about how much it was hurting.

"Okay, I can finish that off when you've got some local in," Martha commented. She swabbed some iodine over the base of her fingers. "Can you see if you can put your hand flat on the pillow for me? Turn your arm over, that is it," Martha instructed. "Just relax. Close your eyes if you don't want to watch," she suggested. "This is going to hurt, but I promise it won't be for too long. If you need to yell then feel free, only me, the TARDIS and him in here and he's out cold and yells often enough."

Martha gripped Donna's middle finger. She held it still and pulled very slightly. Donna didn't cry out but she bent her legs up in response to the pain. Martha pushed the needle of her syringe into the thick swollen part of her finger. She delivered a dose of the drug to one side of her finger and then another dose into the other side of her finger. She then put the needle in between her fingers. She let that work and then took hold of her ring finger which was the more badly fractured. She pulled slightly and Donna tensed with the pain. Martha slid the needle in and delivered the anaesthetic.

"Okay, well done, now just your wrist. I need you to turn your arm so that you're thumb up now please," Martha instructed. She swabbed the inside of her wrist just behind her thumb. The she pushed the needle in and delivered a small amount of the anaesthetic there. Then she put more into the back of her wrist and some into the front of it, all close to the base of her thumb.

"How is that feeling?" Martha asked and ran her fingers over the side of Donna's wrist.

"Numb."

"Okay, good, that is what we want. Now, because of the soft tissue injury this is still going to be quite sore, but the sooner we do it the better," Martha commented. "As soon as I've got your wrist in the right position then I'm going to put the cast on. Then I'm going to pull your fingers and splint those. Okay?"

"Alright," Donna nodded. She just wanted it to be over with. Martha got her to rest her elbow on the pillow but to cock her arm up so that her wrist was off the bed. Martha moved around to the other side of the bed so she was in the right position. She then gripped Donna's hand as if she was going to be shaking it. She took as good a grip of her hand as she could. It was a bit harder than she expected as Donna's hands were bigger than hers and she didn't have anyone else to anchor her elbow. The alternative was going to be to send Donna off to a hospital though because she couldn't leave the Doctor unattended and she couldn't call anyone else into the TARDIS without his permission to help. She'd manage.

She put her hand in the crook of Donna's elbow and then she rotated her wrist. Donna's resolve broke and she cried out as Martha twisted her battered wrist. It felt like she was trying to rip her hand off. She then kept her hand twisted as she cocked it right backward and then slid her other hand up and pushed her thumb right into the gap under her thumb. Martha pushed into the displaced bone to get it back into position. She then kept Donna's wrist slightly cocked. She started wrapping cotton padding material around it. She took it right up to her elbow and to her knuckles. She then used air hardening bandages only found on the TARDIS to put the cast on. She'd used them before on the Doctor and they worked incredibly well.

She cast her thumb so that it was held away from her hand. She took the time to make sure the cast was smooth and fitted well. She was going to split it to allow for additional swelling after a few hours so it needed to be in a good position to start with. It was solid and dry within a couple of minutes so she had to work quickly as there was little time to make any adjustments to the position. She got the TARDIS to take a scan and then while there remained some movement in the cast she increased the amount Donna's wrist was cocked to further close the fracture and rotated her wrist a little to achieve the best position. She then made sure that her fingers remained numb. The pulling of her finger was less delicate and Martha simple grabbed hold of it and pulled it straight again. She then used a foam lined metal splinting material that she moulded over her two broken fingers and then taped securely in place to the cast at the top and the bottom.

"How is that feeling?" Martha asked Donna once she had finished the casting.

"It looks like it is going to be very awkward."

"That's not what I asked," Martha commented wondering if she was going to have to be dealing with a patient as belligerent as the Doctor was when it came to behaving.

"It feels much better," Donna accepted.

"Okay, good," Martha offered. "Now, where is your room? Do you have pyjamas in there that I can get for you?" Martha asked her.

"It's the room with the red door," Donna commented. "It's normally near the galley."

"I'll go and get you them, then, I think you should have a shower and get cleaned up properly, and then get some rest," Martha offered. "You can either rest in here with him, or, there is no reason why you can't go and rest in your own room."

"Can I not just go to my room now?" Donna asked.

"No, for the next half hour I want to keep an eye on you," Martha offered. "You've had morphine and you've broken your wrist, and I've just pulled it, so we just need to make sure that you don't have a delayed reaction to the drug, some kind of shock reaction to the manipulation, and that the cast isn't too tight." Martha advised. "So, sit there and I'll go and get you some pyjamas. Then you can have a shower in here. The sickbay shower has a nice seat in it so you can sit and get washed. I'll get you some things to waterproof your wrist as you can't get the cast wet. Then, you need to get some rest. It sounds like you've had one Hell of a day."

"It's only been the morning really. I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep. I think I'd rather just wait until I know he is alright."

"We'll see how you feel," Martha offered. She went through to Donna's room and the TARDIS had laid out some clothing for her. It wasn't pyjamas but it was a soft pair of loose fitting leggings and a T-shirt that she'd be able to sleep comfortably in but also just be able to lounge around if she didn't want to go to bed. Martha thanked the ship and then returned to the sickbay.

She helped Donna waterproof her arm with a plastic bag and waterproof tape. Then she unfastened her bra for her as that was difficult to do. She then allowed Donna to go into the shower as long as she used the seat and she shouted the moment she felt unsteady or unsure of anything. Donna wasn't entirely sure what all the fuss was about. She couldn't believe she had actually broken her wrist and her fingers that just wasn't right. Hopefully it wouldn't take long to heal. She hoped that the Doctor was going to be able to take them to heal on the beach again. Maybe Martha would be able to come for a while as well? When she got into the shower she turned the spray on, the TARDIS made it the right temperature for her. Not quite scalding hot, but so that the spray was pleasantly warm and it steamed up the glass screen. She got herself clean and then did as Martha insisted and sat down on the seat and just let the water wash over her for a while.

Her wrist was starting to throb a bit by the time she got out of the shower. She wouldn't say that it hurt exactly, it wasn't really pain, it was discomfort and ache and she knew it was there. She dried herself off one handed and then went out wrapped in her towel. Martha assisted her in getting her T-shirt on over her arm and then removed the plastic bag taped to her arm. She pulled her leggings on and then Martha unpinned her plait from the top of her head but left it plaited. It was probably going to be the easiest way to manage it until she had a different cast on. Once Donna was dressed she put the sling on for her. It held her hand higher than her elbow and supported her arm completely.

"It's up to you what you want to do now," Martha told him. "As long as it involves resting of some kind. No running around. As the drugs wear off you're going to come to realise that you're injured. It's not going to be as bad as it was, but you're going to know about it for a few days. If you get any pins and needles, your fingers start to change colour beyond the bruising of the breaks, or they're feeling cold or numb then you need to let me know straight away, okay?" Martha insisted. Donna nodded.

"I think I'm going to go and make a cup of tea and then just come and sit back in here if that is okay?"

"Well, how about you sit there and I will go and make the drinks?"

"What if something happens with the Doctor?" Donna asked worried.

"He's sleeping peacefully now. You can shout for me if anything happens, the galley is a couple of doors down, I will hear you," Martha assured her.

"Okay." Donna nodded. She went and stood at the Doctor's bedside. He was lying on his front with the soaked bandages covering his back. In some places there were spots of blood making it look pink with the white ointment. His face was still very white but he seemed to be breathing more cleanly. Donna gently rubbed the back of his head. He still had sand in his hair and it made him look a bit dusty. He was going to have to get in the shower as well when he was feeling better. She hoped he was going to be feeling better when he woke up. She had been scared he was going to die when he started collapsing and throwing up and his breathing had been getting worse. "You're going to be okay, now, Time Boy," Donna assured him quietly. "Thank you for saving me."

Martha came back into the sickbay with a cup of tea for Donna and a coffee for herself. It was only when Martha sat in a chair and yawned that Donna remembered that they arrived in the early hours of the morning. "I'm sorry, we woke you," Donna apologised to Martha. "You must be knackered."

"Nah, I'm fine," Martha assured her. "And I've got a few days leave this week. I'm going out with Tish tomorrow evening but apart from that I've no plans so we can make sure he is alright and you can stick around until we change the cast on your wrist."

"How long is it going to take to heal?" Donna asked.

"Six to eight weeks I should think."

"How long?!"

"As long as there are no complications with non-union," Martha added. "I don't think you'll have a problem and you might be in luck. The Doctor may have something to accelerate the healing, but if not then you're going to have to be cast for six to eight weeks. The scaphoid is a common bone to break but it is also a common bone to have issues with and to break again and again, so we need to be careful. You don't want to be left with a weakened or sore wrist."

"What about my fingers?" Donna asked hoping there wasn't going to be any issues. "Chiswick's fastest typist here?"

"Not for a while, but they should heal fine," Martha assured her.


	4. Chapter 4

After an hour Martha took another blood sample from the Doctor. The Time Lord grumbled a bit as she drew the blood which indicated that he wasn't as deeply unconscious as he had been. Martha gave the blood to the TARDIS to analyse. She showed that the amount of toxin that remained in his blood stream was greatly reduced. Martha wasn't entirely sure how, but his body temperature was good, his breathing was good, his pulse and his blood pressure were good, and he was doing much better. He had done as he'd said and metabolised the toxins. There wasn't anything she had done to help him do that, she'd just given him drugs to make it more comfortable.

"I don't think it will be long until he wakes up," Martha advised Donna. "And, when he does he's going to be feeling much better. I'm not entirely sure where all the toxin has gone, but it is no longer in his blood stream or tissues."

Donna didn't think she was going to be feeling tired. She'd had a couple of days relaxing on the beach and a good night's sleep and they'd only been out for the morning. Despite the difficulties of the time she didn't think it was too much past lunchtime over on the beach. Yet, as she sat talking to Martha she felt fatigue creep over her.

"You should go to bed if you need to sleep, even if it is only for a couple of hours," Martha commented.

"I shouldn't feel so tired," Donna sighed. "I had a really good night's sleep and it's probably only early afternoon back on the jungle planet."

"How far into the jungle were you when the Doctor got spiked by the spine weasel?" Martha asked her.

"Just over half a mile," Donna advised.

"So, you had to get all the spines out of his back. Then get him half a mile through the jungle? You said that he was starting to throw up and collapse by the end of it and you also did at least some of that after falling down some rocks and breaking your wrist and two fingers?" Martha summarised the morning Donna had experienced. "And, you're wondering why you're feeling worn out? Go to bed for a couple of hours," Martha suggested. "It will do you good. Get some sleep. Even if the Doctor does wake up he's not going to be going much further than his own bed for the rest of the day, and I am sure he's going to be feeling pretty upset that you've been hurt. He will be even more upset if you're all worn out and struggling to stay awake when there is no need. Go and get some rest. I tell you what, I've got the stuff to do a cooked breakfast. You can both come and have breakfast at mine, considering I've got the TARDIS parked in the middle of my bedroom and I don't see it going anywhere far for a few days, you may as well," Martha offered. "I'll make sure I wake you up before then."

"Okay," Donna agreed. She still wasn't sure that she was going to be able to get to sleep, until she was lying in her bed. It was a bit awkward trying to get comfortable, but she took the sling off and rested her cast arm on a spare pillow over her chest and it felt easier. She slipped off to sleep quite easily then.

Martha studied the Doctor's scans. She mentally asked the TARDIS where the toxin had gone. It was no longer in his systems, but he had not excreted it. He'd not urinated and he'd not defecated and he'd not been sick since she'd done the first blood test when his body had been close to overwhelmed with the amount of toxin. The TARDIS showed that he had a small gland in a position where his appendix would be if he was human. The toxins were all collecting there. They would remain there until all it was out of his systems and then it would be expelled from his body usually through the urinary system. It was definitely efficient and it was better than a human would have done. It had probably saved his life. His systems were more robust than a human's. Martha was fairly sure that he had saved Donna's life by taking the majority of the spines. She'd seen what it had done to Donna's shoulder, the big angry red swelling was bound to be quite painful.

Martha peeled back some of the bandage from the Doctor's back. The skin under it was not as inflamed as it had been. Some of the less dense blotches were showing as individual stings again rather than all of them being merged together. It still looked incredibly painful though. She peeled the rest of the bandages off and applied fresh ones with a new layer of cooling salve to make sure that he was as comfortable as possible when he started to wake up. She'd have to change them over every few hours until it was better and he'd probably not be able to lie on his back for a day or so. A couple of the dark blotches looked like they had started to blister. She hoped there wasn't going to be any kind of secondary infection setting in. She'd have to keep an eye on them.

As she smoothed the last of the creamy bandages down over the tip of his shoulder so that his stings were covered she saw that the Doctor's eyes were open. He blinked a couple of times to regain his focus and took a deep sighing breath. He gingerly moved his hand up to remove the oxygen mask from his nose and mouth. Martha let him do it.

"Hello Doctor," Martha crouched down so he didn't have to move in order to see her. "Been in the wars again, haven't you?" she reminded him.

"Martha?" the Doctor puzzled slightly. He'd been with Donna, not with Martha, and, he winced.

"Hello," Martha caressed his head. "How are you feeling?"

"I think…" he tried to think about how he was feeling. "A bit ropey," he acknowledged. "Head still aches a little and my back is really hot and sore."

"Do you remember what happened?" Martha asked him.

"Spine weasel got me," he acknowledged.

"It most certainly did."

"I'm not entirely sure I remember everything that happened after that."

"No, you were in a pretty bad way by all accounts. I know that you would have metabolised the toxins without much intervention, but, Donna got you back to the TARDIS and called me, and, your TARDIS is in my bedroom," Martha advised him.

"Sorry," the Doctor commented.

"You don't have to be sorry," Martha assured him. "Happy to be able to help. Not that I've really done much for you, you seem to have done it for yourself. The toxin has almost gone for your systems, the TARDIS has shown me how you have a separate organ that is filtering it out ready for excretion."

"The effects of the toxins are almost gone," the Doctor commented. He went to rub his face and saw that he had a bandage covering his finger. It was where the spine weasel had bitten him for the final insult.

"You're probably going to have some pain in your back for some time. I just changed the bandages over. They are soaked in an ointment that the TARDIS recommended so are keeping the skin as cool as possible. The inflammation has gone a little, but it is still significant. I've given you some analgesia and some antihistamine that the TARDIS provided and you can have some more of that in an hour or so, but I'm afraid there isn't much else we can do for a while. Donna showed me all the spines she pulled out of your back. There were 84 of them and 37 of them had released the secondary toxins."

"84 is a lot."

"You're not kidding," Martha commented. "How many would have killed Donna?"

"I'd have to examine the actual toxin to be sure. 20 or so spines maybe or 5 that released the secondary toxin."

"So, if she'd been hit with all of them by the weasel then she'd be dead?"

"Yeah, more than likely," the Doctor agreed quietly. "She still took one to her shoulder. Have you sorted that out for her? It's going to be sore too."

"I've put some antiseptic on it and some ointment," Martha commented. "What do you remember about the trip back through the forest to the TARDIS?" Martha asked him.

"Not much," the Doctor tried to decipher the flashes of memory. "She was helping me. I think she shouted at me. She told me she was going to leave me if I didn't get up?"

"I'm sure she didn't mean that," Martha commented knowing better than to think Donna would ever have left him. "Do you remember falling down some rocks?" she asked him.

"No, I, there were the boulders at the edge of the jungle. They were pretty steep to get up. I'm not sure how Donna could have got me down them? I know I was pretty bad. I had to be pretty bad, I don't remember it. I know I was hurting and I was sick a few times. I don't remember getting back down the rocks."

"By all accounts you both fell down them," Martha told him.

"They were quite high," the Doctor suggested. Then he pushed himself up onto his arms, grimacing as his back stung as the movement seemed to set every single one of the 84 stings going again. "Where is Donna?"

"She's in bed. She's sleeping comfortably, I went and popped my head in on her a moment ago," Martha assured him.

"Is she alright?"

"She will be, but, when she fell over the boulders she must have landed awkwardly. She's broken two fingers and the scaphoid. Both of them to the right side. I've set her wrist and fingers and cast and splint her up. She is almost as stubborn as you are, didn't want any morphine to begin with, but we've got it done. She's now resting."

"She's broken her wrist and fingers?" the Doctor fretted feeling sick all over again. "I must have dragged her down or something?" He felt horrible that Donna had been hurt.

"Now, I don't know what happened and you're certainly not going to know what happened. Only Donna does and she's not said how it happened, just that you both took a tumble down the rocks. She'll heal okay. The scaphoid was displaced so it's a reasonable full bodied fracture rather than just a crack through it, but it's holding so I don't think it's going to need a screw through it. I've put a temporary cast on. I will have to split it this evening to accommodate the swelling, but when the swelling is reduced we can look at the positioning and see if she does just need a little screw in to hold it. It looked good on the last scans, but we will have to see."

"Poor Donna." The Doctor sighed miserably and then grimaced as his back razed.

"You're both going to be sore for a while, but you're both going to be fine," Martha assured him. "Now, is there anything else that we can do in order to ease your back?"

"It feels so hot," the Doctor complained. "Can I have some ice packs on it?"

"We can try that, but it's a large area to be treated with ice, we don't want you to end up with hypothermia."

"I can maintain my body temperature quite well," the Doctor assured her, though they both had an unwelcome flash of memory to him being inside a status chamber being rapidly frozen. Ice packs were thankfully not going to be that extreme. Martha went and got a load of gel ice packs from the sickbay store. She activated them one at a time and placed them across his back and shoulders over the top of the bandages. The coldness seeped into the bandages extinguishing the flame beneath them.

"How is that feeling?" Martha asked him when she had placed all the ice packs on though his boneless slump and relieved sigh were a good indication that it was helping him.

"Better," the Doctor acknowledged. "Almost nice."

"Good," Martha caressed the back of his head. "Now, how about a cup of tea?" She knew that he'd not want to resist a hot sweet tea. For an alien he had certainly taken that human tradition to heart.

"I don't want to have to sit up yet," the Doctor sighed. "It's almost stopped hurting."

"Well, just this once, I will get you a cup of tea and a straw, and I'll hold it for you," Martha suggested. The Doctor made a non-committal sound that was either a disgruntled no or a reluctant yes at the thought of being fed a cup of tea in that manner. Martha wasn't entirely sure which it was. "Was that a yes please I'd love a cup of tea, or a no thank you, not just now?"

"Yes please."

"Okay, well, you stay there and relax and I'll be back in a moment. I'll leave the doors open so if you want anything shout and I'll hear you," Martha assured her. She went out into the galley and flicked the kettle on. She got two mugs out of the cupboard and started another coffee in one of them for her and put a teabag in the other for the Doctor. She was just about to spoon the sugar in when she heard a 'Martha' get called through from the sickbay. She dropped the spoon on the counter and rushed back through to the sickbay where the Doctor remained lying face down on the bed. "What is it?" she worried.

"Can I have some biscuits as well?" he asked her.

"Course you can." Martha resisted the urge to scold him for shouting for biscuits. She'd not told him only to shout in an emergency but if he wanted anything. She was glad that he wanted to eat even if it was just a couple of biscuits. After throwing up as Donna had advised he was probably still feeling a bit tender and acidic, some dry biscuits might be a good idea for him, though she was sure he was expecting elaborate creams and chocolate she picked up a pack of plain digestives.

The Doctor nibbled at the biscuits while still lying on his front. He was a bit tenderer than he anticipated when he started to eat them. He didn't feel sick as such, just reluctant to fill his stomach. He slowly sipped the tea through a straw. Tea was always a relief and once he'd drained the cup he rested on his front and allowed his eyes just to drift closed again. Martha didn't mind that at all.

He dosed on and off for a further hour, but then sleep eluded him. The ice on his back was feeling rather cold now rather than a relief which suggested that the inflammation had gone down a fair bit again. It wouldn't last long. The ointment and drugs from the TARDIS were powerful and no match for a measly spine weasel. He was feeling generally stiff and sore from the effects of the muscle cramps from the toxins, but he was now bored of lying on his front and he wanted to go and check that Donna was alright.

It didn't take Martha long to see that the Doctor was waking properly again. "Do you want another cup of tea?" she asked him. "I've got to see about changing the bandages and renewing the ointment and you're due some more drugs again, so you can have a cup of tea before or after I do that?"

"Can I have it after?" he asked. "Do you think I could sit up now?"

"Let me change the bandages on your back first," Martha suggested. She took the ice packs off and then carefully peeled the bandages back. A couple of the worst stings through the back of his shoulders had blistered and were weeping slightly, but the isolated ones that had not triggered had reduced to penny sized red disks that no longer looked as angry. "That is much, much better," Martha commented. "You really do heal up quickly," she advised. She used some gauze to clean some of the blistered areas and he flinched a little when she passed the saline over raw skin. That was still sore. She then spread the ointment over his back. "Are you sure you're going to want to get up this time?" she checked with him.

"Yeah, I'm fine now."

"Okay, then instead of the bandages we'll cover you over with a T-shirt," Martha suggested. She went to the store at the side of the sickbay and got a small T-shirt. He'd normally wear a medium so the small would be tighter on him. She wanted the soft fabric of the T-shirt to cover the ointment at the back. She helped him to sit up on the side of the bed. He was stiff and sore and he felt decidedly fragile but with nothing that was beyond him and he wasn't going to complain when Donna had broken her wrist and two fingers.

Martha got him a pair of pyjama bottoms to put on rather than his shorts. She remained with him as he changed in case he lost his balance. He then sat on the edge of the bed again as Martha gave him the drugs. He checked what the TARDIS was having her give him. A mild analgesia to assist with the pain he was in but not to block it totally so he'd not go running about too soon, an anti-histamine to assist with the stings and a booster of vitamins and minerals that he was supposed to take quite regularly to ensure he got the things a Time Lord needed that weren't readily available through the human diet he tended to eat.

"Thank you," the Doctor offered once Martha had finished giving him the drugs.

"You're welcome," Martha assured him. "One day are you going to turn up for a cuppa without being half dead?" she checked with him.

"I would have been alright," the Doctor commented. "Donna didn't really need to call this time."

"Well, considering she has a broken wrist and broken fingers she probably did, though she didn't realise that at the time," Martha reminded him.

"Has she had plenty of pain relief?"

"She's had morphine and lignocaine while I was setting her wrist and finger, but she's gone off and is having a sleep. We'll see how she manages with codeine, ibuprofen, or tramadol depending on how sore she is when she wakes up," Martha advised. "As I told her, I'm off work this week on leave that I've got to use up. I've only got plans tomorrow evening with Tish, so you need to stick around until you're fully recovered and until we can put a better cast on her wrist. She was reluctant to go to sleep, so, I promised that I'd do a decent breakfast. How is your tummy feeling?"

"It's not too bad," the Doctor admitted. "I'm not sure if I'm starving hungry or feeling a little sick."

"A good cooked breakfast may well sort it out for you," Martha commented. "If it doesn't it will certainly let you know which one it is," she teased slightly.

"What is the local time?" the Doctor asked curiously as Martha was wearing her bed clothes still and was talking about breakfast.

"It's coming up to half seven," Martha commented.

"Half seven in the morning and you've sorted me out and sorted Donna out? What time did we arrive?"

"Ten past three in the morning." Martha narrowed her eyes at him, but then smiled. "I am assuming that the TARDIS always comes in the middle of the night because she knows I've got no life and am going to be tucked up in bed alone," Martha chuckled.

"Probably," the Doctor agreed but pouted when Martha tapped him on the thigh for agreeing with her. "How long has Donna been asleep?" he asked quietly.

"About two hours now," Martha commented.

"Is it okay if I go and see her?" the Doctor asked.

"If you're alright to get up then you can. You're not to go running around though. No leaving, no doing anything strenuous, and no TARDIS maintenance. Some of the stings on your back have blistered so I need to keep an eye on them and until you've totally metabolised all the toxin and have excreted it properly we need to be cautious."

"I'll be fine now."

"I am sure that you will be," Martha advised. "But, we need to be safe, okay? The state you were in when you arrived here was enough to worry me. I am sure that you worried Donna a lot, so, I just want you to be safe and careful for a few days. She's going to be feeling sore herself you need to behave so she doesn't have to worry about you too much and you're not feeling 100% yet at all are you?" she checked with him as he carefully got down off the edge of the bed.

"No, not yet," the Doctor admitted. "I will behave," he assured her. "I'll take some codeine through for Donna in case she is awake and in pain?"

"Okay, go on then. If you don't mind and you're feeling up to it, then I will nip back into mine and get dressed and stuff and then be right back?" The Doctor nodded that it was fine. He was steady enough on his feet now. He didn't feel well, but he didn't feel horrible. There was only the slightest amount of toxin remaining in his blood stream now. His body had seen him through it as he knew it would, though he'd not expected it to be as bad as it had been. Though 84 spines? That was a lot of spines to end up with. Stupid spine weasel. He almost hoped it got eaten while it was stuck on that tree all defenceless.

The Doctor padded barefoot through the TARDIS toward Donna's bedroom. Her door was open a crack so that Martha had been able to pop her head in if needed without risking it waking her. The room was dimly lit but enough that he could see that she was tucked up on bed. She was lying on her back and her cast arm was resting on a pillow.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the Doctor whispered as he stepped into the room. He went into the bathroom and poured a glass of water and then eased a chair to the side of her bed. He sat in it, but quickly realised that he couldn't rest back against it yet without his back complaining. He was sure that he actually felt a couple of blisters popping and spilling gunk down his skin as he rested back. He leant forward and ran his fingers lightly over the cast on Donna's arm. Martha had done a good job, but he could see the deep bruising coming out across her little finger where it was bleeding into the tissues from her broken fingers.

Donna moaned softly in her sleep. "Shhhh," the Doctor whispered. He tried to reach to caress her head as she slept, but his back screamed as he extended. He wasn't quite ready to be moving around too much. He must have lost another couple of blisters because he was sure he could feel fluid run down his back. He ignored it and eased himself off the chair so that he was kneeling on the floor and he could reach to caress Donna's head without stretching too far forward.

"Doctor…" Donna groaned though it was unclear if she was still asleep and dreaming or if she was acknowledging him.

"I'm here," he assured her.

"I'd never… I'd never leave you…" she mumbled.

"I know that." He caressed her head. "Shhh," he tried to soothe her, but she wriggled and squirmed on the bed. She lifted her cast arm up off the pillow slightly but then winced and her brow furrowed. It was clear the pain was reaching her in her dreams and making her rest difficult. He could give her the painkillers and then she could either go back to sleep more easily, or, she could stay awake.

"Donna?" the Doctor rubbed her shoulder lightly. "It's okay, you need to wake up, you're okay," he told her. "Wake up."

"Spaceman?" Donna blinked and looked at him with bleary eyes.

"Hello."

"You look like Hell," she commented quietly.

"Well, thank you very much," the Doctor complained and then chuckled. "I feel much better, thanks to you," he offered. "But this?" he indicated toward her cast.

"I'm sorry," Donna mumbled quietly.

"You're sorry, why on Earth are you sorry?" the Doctor asked. "You shouldn't be sorry. You never have to be sorry, Donna. And I'm so sorry you got hurt."

"I didn't think it did…" Donna commented weakly. "I thought it was okay, but it's not, it's killing me," she admitted and exhausted tears sprung to her eyes.

"Hey, it's okay, it's going to hurt, but it's going to get better, and I've got some painkillers for you here all ready for you." He offered. He decanted two of the codeine into his palm. "Sit yourself up a little and you can take these."

"What is it?"

"Codeine. We can start with this. It's a good drug, but you can take other things with it as well if you need to. We can give you ibuprofen with it to help with the swelling and if it's still sore we can give you another painkiller on top."

Donna moved to sit up a little and the Doctor stretched, ignoring his back, to adjust her pillow so she could rest back against the bed. He gave her the two painkillers into her hand and she put them in her mouth and then swallowed them with a glug of the water the Doctor handed her. "They are going to take ten to fifteen minutes to kick in, but then we can keep on top of it," the Doctor explained. "How?" he squeaked slightly as he took in the cast again. "Martha said we fell down some rocks? Was it the boulders? Did I? Donna, I'm so sorry?"

"It wasn't your fault," Donna assured him. "It was mine," she assured him. "It was my fault, I stopped us too close to the edge. You were barely conscious and you started to slide down. It was my fault," Donna advised him plainly. "I thought I was going to have bloody killed you, so this?" She indicated to her cast. "Is my fault and not yours and I'm just glad neither of us smashed our heads in on those rocks."

"Thank you for looking after me," the Doctor offered. He leant over and kissed her on the cheek. It surprised her somewhat and she looked at him. "What?"

"I hardly looked after you," Donna argued. "If you'd not have got yourself up I was just going to leave you there and go sunbathing," she told him trying to sound serious.

"Donna," the Doctor rubbed her cast lightly. "I know you'd never leave me."

"I thought you were going to die!" Donna exclaimed suddenly as fresh tears sprung to her eyes. "You were throwing up and blacking out and shaking and… we were in the jungle… and it was my fault! And…"

"Hey?" the Doctor pulled her into a gentle hug. She sobbed against him for a few minutes, the drugs, pain, and the shock of it all getting the better of her for a moment. He allowed her to. It was better for her to release it all than to hold it all in and try to continue being alright. It was alright for Donna to admit that she wasn't okay.

"Sorry," Donna whispered. "You're the one who was so sick and I'm the one in a state?"

"You've broken your wrist Donna," the Doctor reminded her. "That's not nothing to worry about, okay? I'll be fine in a day or so, it's going to take you a few weeks."

"Martha said six to eight weeks?"

"Well, we can certainly do something about that once the swelling has gone down, but it's still going to be three or four," the Doctor advised her. "We're going to stay here until your cast is done so Martha and I can look after you together, and then?" He kissed her on top of her head. "We're going to go back to that beach and we're going to relax there until you're completely healed. I've got some waterproofing gel that we can put on so that you can still go swimming and…"

"Then I'll have one white arm and one brown one?" Donna grumbled.

"Brown?" the Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Don't you mean lobster red?" he teased slightly as Donna's colouring tended against brown.

"I have you know that I tan," Donna commented slightly. "A little," she offered. "And you? You're only brown because the freckles joined up," she advised and rubbed his nose cheekily. She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, but then she remembered that he'd had spines sticking out of his shoulders near the top as well. She lifted her head off him and carefully eased her uninjured arm around him. She went low down so not to touch his back. She went into the small of his back where he had not been stung and rubbed it slightly. He felt damp and a little sticky. She hoped he wasn't still sweating out the toxins and trying to look after her. She brought her hand back round, but when she looked at her palm it was smeared with bright red. "Doctor?"

"You're alright, Donna," he assured her.

"You're not," Donna advised. She showed him the palm of her hand. "You're bleeding."

"Oh," the Doctor looked at it. She'd only touched the bottom of his back and for it to be that red he had to be bleeding a fair bit.

"Stand up and turn around?" Donna suggested. He did as he was told. "Oh, Christ?" The whole of the back of his T-shirt was wet and red. It was clinging to him and shining where the cloth was saturated across his shoulders and it had seeped down into the back of his pyjama bottoms as well. Donna turned and sat on the bed. She didn't bother with the sling. "Where is Martha?"

"She just went into her flat to get dressed. You don't need to panic. It's just a bit of blood."

"You're bleeding quite a lot, Doctor," Donna told him. "We need to get you back into sickbay so Martha can sort you out." She got up off the bed, making sure she held her cast wrist up, the throbbing got worse if she let it down. She took him back through to the sickbay. Martha was back in there and fully dressed now. She was packing away all the materials she'd used to cast Donna's arm and to make sure that the place was left tidy and that the trollies were stocked. She knew if she didn't do it then the Doctor would never think of it and the next time it was needed then they'd not be ready and if it was an emergency then it would be difficult.

"What happened to your sling?" Martha asked Donna as she came out. "You need to make sure that you wear it."

"He's bleeding," Donna announced. "Turn round and show Martha." The Doctor did as he was told.

"What did I tell you about going running around?" Martha sighed.

"I've not been running around?" the Doctor frowned.

"Come and lie back down on here," Martha instructed. "I've got him, Donna, you go back and get your sling on please."


	5. Chapter 5

Donna was about to say something about it not being that necessary when she was holding it up, but she didn't want Martha to be worrying about her when the Doctor was bleeding and needed attention. She headed back to her bedroom to get the sling, carefully positioned her arm in it, and then went back into the sickbay. The Doctor was lying face down on the bed and Martha was in the process of cutting up his blood saturated T-shirt.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," the Doctor grumbled unhappy about the fuss.

"You had 84 spines in your back. Each of them went in about an inch as far as I can tell from the wounds. 37 of them then had barbs on them and were ripped out of your back so that means you have 47 inch deep puncture wounds and you have 37 inch deep ragged wounds on your back. I ended up having to put a stitch in 11 of them to keep them closed. I may have to stitch the rest of the barbed ones as well. As you move around you're risking them coming open. It looks like the toxin has damages the tissues in the channel of the wound as well so that they're a little vacuous," Martha advised him. "We need to make sure you're careful and we check regularly you certainly don't want any of them to turn into abscesses. I know you're not going to be willing to lie like this until you're healed, so, let's just clean you up and have a look at what is going on underneath all this blood."

Donna moved round and took the Doctor's hand as she sunk onto a stool at the side of his bed. He winced and hissed as Martha washed his back down lightly with a sponge so she could get rid of the blood and some of the ointment. "Your back looks tonnes better," Donna commented feeling a little less worried than she had done. "It was awful before, all bumpy and bleeding and stuff, now it's not as bad."

"It's improving quickly, but we've still got some troublesome wounds over his shoulders," Martha commented as she cleaned over them. "I'm going to have to put a few more stitches in," Martha offered. If they were just shallow wounds she'd not have bothered but they were an inch deep in places and into the muscle underneath, so when he moved and his muscles rippled it was preventing the wounds from closing properly and squeezing blood out. "Do you want me to put local in each one or are you going to be brave?" Martha asked him.

"I'll be brave," he offered.

"Okay," Martha commented. "If you change your mind then let me know." She pulled a trolley over and unrolled a suture kit out. She swabbed the first of the bleeding wounds and then she thread the needle with a bright blue suture cord. Donna watched what she was doing as she pushed the needle through the flesh on one side of the small hole in his back and then up through the wound and the skin on the other side of it. She used her gloved hands to knot the thread and pulled the stitch tight so the wound was closed and a thin line in his flesh rather than the hole. She dabbed it. "First one done, that wasn't too bad was it?"

"No," the Doctor accepted. This time instead of watching what Martha was doing Donna watched the Doctor's expression. His eyes were closed and he looked calm but the tensed when the needle went through and then again when it came out and then as Martha pulled the stitch. By the time Martha had done ten more of the wounds his eyes were permanently screwed shut and Donna could see a tear squeezing out.

"Do you need Martha to stop and give you something to stop it hurting?" Donna asked him and squeezed his hand. He shook his head slightly. Martha carried on. She was going to have to put a stitch into all of the wounds so that they didn't simply open up again each time he moved. It seemed a shame considering he'd have healed them within a couple of days rather than a couple of weeks like a human, but that meant they needed to be closed even more. She thought about switching to glue but they weren't neat cuts, they were where the flesh had been ripped by the barb on the spines so stitches were more liable to hold because she doubted that he was going to be well behaved for long.

As far as the Doctor was concerned it took forever, but Martha finally advised him that it was the last one. He had a vague recall of Donna telling him there were only 12 more spines to take out when in fact there had been 32. Martha cleaned his back. She dabbed some Vaseline on all the stitches so that they didn't dry out and then she coated it with ointment again. She fetched him a different T-shirt and then slowly got him to sit up. He pulled the cut T-shirt off over his arms. He was a bit shocked and a bit repulsed when he actually saw how much blood there was on the back of it. There was little wonder Donna had marched him straight back into Martha but in real terms it certainly wasn't enough to cause any affect, other than to ruin a perfectly good stock T-shirt.

"You're going to need to change your pyjamas as well, but we'll leave you to do that this time," Martha commented. She was content that he was actually alright. "Then, I want to do another blood test just to make sure that you're toxicity levels have dropped off. How is the headache?"

"It's still there, but it's not bad or anything," the Doctor confirmed. "Just an ache," he rubbed his brow. He changed into a clean pair of pyjama bottoms again, not really bothered about getting dressed properly. For once he was going to be quite happy just to lounge around in the TARDIS, though Martha's offer of a cooked breakfast was sounding more and more appealing. When Martha came at him with a ligature and a syringe to take blood from him he frowned at her. "What are you doing with that lot?"

"I'm going to take blood for the TARDIS to analyse your toxicity levels," Martha told him.

"You are not," the Doctor grumbled. "How many times have you done that?"

"Three?" Martha looked puzzled. The Doctor walked over to the machine. He opened a draw and pulled out a pen and then attached a sterile needle tip from a packet and attached it. He then pricked his finger and put a tiny drop of blood on a slide and then shoved that into the machine. The machine analysed the sample of blood and Martha came over and had a look at the results. She smiled slightly when the Doctor grumbled about having his arm drained for a simple analysis.

"Right, well, you're clear of the poisons," Martha assured the Doctor, loud enough that Donna could hear and gain the same kind of relief from the news as she did. "Donna, how's the wrist feeling?"

"It's throbbing a little, but it's okay," Donna offered. "The tablets are working."

"You can have something stronger if you need to?" the Doctor offered.

"I don't want to be sent doolally by medication."

"You travel with him that pretty much suggests that you're doolally already," Martha commented. Donna laughed and nodded as the Doctor frowned. He was about to remind Martha that she had as well, but then he'd be reminded that she'd left him because he'd done little to protect her from the hurt that he caused her. Now he had turned up in her bedroom in the middle of the night expecting her to treat his wounds and she had done and she looked quite content to do so. "Are you two hungry then?"

"I'm getting toward starving," the Doctor confirmed. Donna nodded that she was hungry as well. Martha led them out of the TARDIS into her flat. She sat them down at the kitchen table and put the kettle on. Then she hunted through the fridge to find the breakfast things. She had eggs, bacon, sausages, and mushrooms. In the cupboard she located a tin of beans and brought that out as well.

"So, what were you doing in the jungle anyway?" Martha asked the Doctor curiously. "Donna said something about treasure hunting?"

"The treasure of the Great Mambosa," the Doctor advised.

"And what is that when it's at home?"

"Do you need a hand with anything?" Donna asked her as Martha pulled a couple of pans out of her cupboards and set the grill going.

"No, you sit there and relax," Martha insisted. "Doctor? Who is the Great Mambosa?"

"It's not really whom though sometimes they refer to the elder as the Great Mambosa, in reality it is a tribe of people. They disappeared about a hundred thousand years ago. They were a space faring race long before they should have been, well in advance of any other species in their region of space, and there are indications that they had assistance in their technological development, but they simply disappeared. They vanished without a trace, their great civilisation that stretched across several planetary systems simply fell. No one is quite sure how or why. It is said that the digital history of the planet was also lost, but that there are some scrolls that remain from their ancient days which relate to their prophecies and doctrine, but they have never been found."

"And that is the treasure you're looking for?" Martha checked with him.

"Yeah, I've been half-heartedly looking for it for a couple of centuries now, whenever the whim takes me. I've collected some bits and pieces, a map which was the best bit of information I had, and then yesterday we were on an island and I went to explore a bit and I found some stones that had symbols etched in them that match the map and I realised that we were in the very same chain of islands as was on the map. This morning we set off to go and find it."

"Like proper explorers," Donna added. "Until I aggravated a spine weasel," she commented and then sighed.

"It's not your fault," the Doctor assured her. "It was just one Hell of a grumpy spine weasel." He looked at the bandage on the end of his finger. "I can't believe that it poisoned me and then bit my finger?!"

"You shouldn't have gone poking at it after it had shot 84 spines at you," Donna reminded him.

"Just as well you didn't try to lick it," Martha added.

"That's what I said?!" Donna exclaimed and then laughed. Martha laughed as well and the Doctor grumbled slightly. He didn't know why they all thought that he was going to start licking things.

Martha cooked up a full breakfast and they sat and ate. Martha presented Donna with a camping spork so she could stab, cut, and scoop as required with a single hand. It worked quite well, but it didn't butter toast for her. The Doctor was quick enough to jump in to assist that it showed he was feeling pretty guilty about her injury despite it being no way his fault. He was also quick enough that his back stung him and he hoped he'd not just popped a couple of stitches to ruin another T-shirt. He thought that he should probably go and put a darker one on. Even if he'd not pulled the stitches at all there was still going to be some leaking blood and moisture and a white T-shirt would not look pleasant after a while.

They'd not long finished breakfast when Martha's phone rang. It was clear from the half conversation that it was her mother and the Doctor pulled a bit of a face. Martha confirmed that she was up and out of bed, but that no she wasn't going to go out other than to get some food shopping in, and that she didn't really want to pop into her mother's and no it wasn't really convenient if she popped over, because she had a couple of friends staying over at short notice, no they weren't from UNIT and yes one of them was male, and no there was nothing going on – nothing at all ever.

The Doctor harrumphed slightly at that, but he guessed it wasn't anything he didn't deserve. Martha cleared up the breakfast gear and loaded her slim dishwasher so that she could set it off and have clean plates again later. She was still gradually rebuilding her home life after her last flat had been blown up and then moving out of Tom's house. She had only got herself four plates so far so if they wanted to eat again later not only was she going to have to go and buy some food, but she was also going to have to wash the plates.

She invited Donna and the Doctor to remain in her lounge. She had a three piece suite in there but it had cream covers and the Doctor didn't want to risk sitting on them. He couldn't lie back against anything and though he would have had room to lie on her sofa he didn't want to risk bleeding on them. He didn't want to seem to be ungrateful either, so he wasn't quite sure what to do.

"Would you be more comfortable in the library?" Donna asked him quietly when he was still standing hovering after she'd sat down.

"I don't want to risk getting blood on the sofas if I start to bleed again," the Doctor admitted to her.

"Martha?" Donna got her attention. "You know what he's like. He's not going to sit still and if he pulls any of those stitches again he's going to end up bleeding all over your couch and you don't want that. How about we go through to the library?" she suggested. "I'll make sure he just rests and we can put some movies on or something. Why don't you come and join us?"

"I've got to nip to the shops," Martha advised. "If you're going to be round for a few days I'll stock up."

"I'll make sure you get reimbursed," the Doctor offered.

"Don't be daft, you don't need to go robbing a cash point." Martha chuckled knowing that was likely what the Doctor would end up doing. He might have been daft and ended up getting himself in trouble again, but if there was one thing he'd done over the years with the number of times he'd saved the whole planet it was earn himself a few dinners. It wasn't as if any of them paid him board while they were travelling on the TARDIS. She could put him and Donna up for a few days.

"Go and make yourselves comfortable in the library," Martha instructed. "I'll go and do what I need to do. I shouldn't be more than a couple of hours, and then we can have an afternoon of movies. You're going to be a bit out of time synch as well if you left the jungle at lunch time and arrived here at three in the morning."

The Doctor and Donna went through to the library. Donna fussed to make sure that the Doctor had somewhere to lie down comfortably where he could still see the screen that was up there and so he wasn't lying or twisting his back. The Doctor fussed a little to make sure that Donna was comfortable and she didn't need anything else for her wrist. They both professed to be fine. Donna lounged in a high back winged leather arm chair with her feet up on the end of the sofa that the Doctor was lying along. He was lying half on his side but mostly on his front, hugging a cushion to his chest to keep himself stable.

"What do you want to watch then?" the Doctor asked as he had the controls for the projector. It linked through to the TARDIS database so they could watch practically anything. "Pretty Woman?" he asked her knowing it was a feel good film that Donna enjoyed.

"You don't want to watch Pretty Woman."

"I don't mind," the Doctor commented.

"You normally do," Donna reminded him. "How about Shrek?"

"Okay," the Doctor agreed. He selected the film and put it on and they both watched it giggling together at the funny bits.

By the time the film had finished Donna was dosing in the chair. The Doctor didn't bother moving. He just selected Shrek 2 and set that going as well. He shifted a bit on the couch, not quite comfortable, as his guts thought they might be about to protest the massive breakfast he'd eaten. He felt a little crampy again but he knew to expect it over the next couple of days and it wasn't too bad, he'd just have to put up with it. He brought his knees up and tried his best to concentrate on the film and to ignore it.

Martha returned from the shops. She put all her groceries away. She'd picked up a bottle of wine. If Donna was only taking codeine then she'd be alright to have a glass or two of the wine. She knew the Doctor wouldn't touch the stuff but she'd bought a bottle of banana milkshake and a bottle of chocolate milkshake and as he was unwell she would allow him to mix them both together. With her cupboards stocked and her fridge loaded with enough food to last three or four days she went back through into the library.

The screen in the film was on a menu screen. It was Shrek 2. The history bar at the bottom showed that both Shrek 1 and Shrek 2 had been played through. She went round to see that Donna was in the armchair and was sound asleep. The Doctor was curled up in a ball on the sofa. He wasn't asleep but he had his arms clamped over his abdomen and was shivering and sweating.

"Doctor?" Martha crouched down to the edge of the sofa. "What is it?" She caressed his head.

"Cramps," the Doctor groaned quietly. "God, it's bad."

"In your abdomen?" Martha checked. It was fairly to see that was where he was guarding, but she didn't want to assume. He nodded with his eyes tightly closed as another wave of spasms twisted his insides round. He didn't know why it had come back. It shouldn't have come back. "Move your arms out the way for me?" Martha instructed. She reached in to where he was curled over and gently palpated his abdomen. She wouldn't be able to do a proper examination unless he was on his back, but she could feel that the muscles of his abdominal wall were solid and tight. He moaned as she tried to examine him, but it didn't matter where she touched him, it remained as painful.

Martha went through to the sickbay. She wasn't going to make the Doctor come through with her. She wasn't sure he'd make it, but she picked up some drugs the TARDIS suggested he took, a hot gel pad, and a blanket. She injected a muscle relaxant into his thigh and then she placed the hot gel pad on his taut abdomen under his T-shirt, and then wrapped the blanket over him. She rubbed his upper arm as she perched on the edge of the sofa. "It won't take too long for the drugs to work and for the muscle spasms to go off again," Martha assured him. "When it has I think you're going to have to come through to the sickbay so we can let the TARDIS scan you properly."

"I'll be okay," the Doctor groaned.

"I'm sure that you will be, but you shouldn't have to be struggling so much either," Martha commented.

"The cramps are starting to go off," the Doctor sighed.

"Good," Martha commented. "Just keep still and take deep breaths until they go off completely." She rubbed his shoulder. He wasn't looking particularly well and he was still shivering slightly. "Do you want me to go and get the drug that will help you sleep for a while?" Martha asked him. "It looks like Donna has given up on trying to remain awake."

"She's knackered," the Doctor commented.

"Perhaps the same can be said for you, Doctor?" Martha offered.

"Maybe," the Doctor accepted. "I should be clearing the toxins by now though."

"Then, maybe, we should be going through to the sickbay to find out why you're not?"

"Okay," the Doctor agreed quietly.

"Ease yourself up slowly so that you don't trigger the cramps off again," Martha warned him. She hooked an arm through his and started to help him rise up so he was sitting but he jolted and grimaced and tried to curl again as a pain shot through him. He swallowed the shocked cry at the intensity of it as it speared him through his guts. "What was that?" Martha held him as he grunted.

"Oh no…" the Doctor whispered quietly. "…not oil?"

"Doctor?" Martha didn't know what he was talking about, but the Doctor groaned as he tried to sit up more fully.

"Need to check… the toxin base…" he groaned. He rose to his feet, but he only managed to take three steps toward the library door before he cried out and collapsed to his knees. He grimaced as his hands went down to the left hand side of his lower abdomen. He started to topple forward, his hands still pressed into his gut, so he was going to end up smashing his face into the floor. Martha held him upright.

"Doctor?" Martha took his shoulders to prevent him crashing into the carpet. He groaned and then cried out again. "You need to tell me what is wrong, Doctor," Martha insisted. "What can I do?"

"Can't…" the Doctor grimaced. He put his hands on the floor. Leaning forward so he was on his hands and knees, sucking air in to try and calm down, and to stop the pain, but it spiked him again. Shooting right through the side of his abdomen and through his groin. He tried to adjust his position, to curl up more, but he just cried out. He shuddered and almost collapsed down as his elbows buckled. He managed to catch himself out of sheer determination.

"Doctor?! What's wrong?" Donna suddenly appeared at his opposite side to Martha. He couldn't believe this? He half sobbed as he bowed his head but then the pain reared up again and he grimaced, but as it continued to lance through him he ended up crying out on a ragged breath. "Martha?" Donna looked to the medic for some assurance that the Doctor was going to be alright, but she wasn't entirely sure what was wrong with him.

"Doctor, we need to get you through to the sickbay," Martha told him firmly.

"Can't move…" he hissed. He squeaked a curse he hoped that neither Martha nor Donna heard, of course they both did. He should have known. He should have realised straight away. Why hadn't he realised? He widened his stance, his knees wider apart, his hands on the ground as the pain eased for a moment, but he knew it was just preparing to come back even worse. He took the time to take deep breaths and try to control it, but Martha had other ideas.

"Tell me what is going on," Martha insisted.

"Toxin needs to… be expelled…," the Doctor advised. "Filter organ is… going into spasm… trying to push toxins out… but… receiving area is full… too full… so full…"

"So you need to pee?" Martha asked him and he sobbed as he closed his eyes and shook his head. "Okay, do you need to get to the bathroom then?" she tried to be delicate because for some reason he seemed to be embarrassed. If the pain and cramps were the result of either diarrhoea or maybe constipation then she knew it could be that painful. He shook his head. "Then, I don't understand?"

"Toxin… is soluble… in oil… not water," the Doctor advised quietly. He collapsed off his hands and down onto his elbows as the pain shot through him again. "Excreted… in oil based… secretions."

"What oil based secretions?" Martha asked him. "We don't have oil based excretions," she advised him. Urine and sweat were all water based. Greasy skin and hair maybe, but if a human had to get rid of too much oil based stuff then the result was sometimes a very explosive visit to the bathroom that could be uncomfortable, but that was just waste, it wasn't a secretion.

"Time Lords… do," the Doctor whimpered and then cried out with the rising pain levels again. His body was trying to force more of the toxins down so that it could be expelled, but he didn't see how it was going to be expelled. He couldn't. He screamed and pushed his fist into the lower part of his abdomen to try and stop the pain, not caring that he collapsed into the carpet until Martha held him.

"What's wrong with him?" Donna asked.

"I think he is saying that his body is trying to get rid of the toxins as it is supposed to but that the toxin is just building up somewhere else so his body can't get rid of it?" Martha offered. "Doctor? Come on, you need to tell me, what is the oil based secretion that Time Lords have? If I don't know what is wrong I'm not going to know what we can do. What is oil based?" Martha asked him. "You said that Time Lords have an oil based secretion, what is it?" she insisted.

"Male… Time Lords…" the Doctor whined, but his embarrassment was lost as another pain speared him and he cried out.

"Semen?" Martha asked him quietly and he sobbed and nodded desperately wanting the pain to go so he could run away and hide. "Okay." Martha rubbed his arm seeing why he might have been so embarrassed. "Can you sort yourself out?" She didn't know how he would be able to think about that at all.

"Too… long… too much… hurts," the Doctor gasped.

"What is wrong with him?" Donna asked quietly.

"Is it okay if I tell Donna?" Martha asked him. The Doctor just groaned, there wasn't much choice in the matter. He didn't tell her that she couldn't tell Donna and she didn't want Donna to be getting too upset about not knowing what was ailing him. "The toxin from the spine weasel has been removed from his blood supply into an organ ready for it to be expelled from his body," Martha explained. "The problem is that the toxin appears to be oil based rather than water based so it's not going to be peed out as we kind of expected, because that is water based and oil and water don't mix very well. Time Lords apparently have oil based semen."

"I bet that's really slimy," Donna commented and the Doctor guffawed and then cried out as the pain got the better of him. Donna rubbed the back of his head.

"Instead of the toxin being passed as urine it is collecting as oil based ejaculate," Martha explained.

"You're just going to have to stop being shy, get busy, and get rid of it, Doctor," Donna told him.

"Too much… pain," the Doctor groaned. "Too full…"

"We're going to have to do something, Doctor, you certainly can't stay like this. I am going to need to examine you."

"Can't touch…" the Doctor gasped. "Can't… move."

"I'm afraid that you're going to have to," Martha told him. "I can't imagine that hanging like this is going to be doing you any good at all," she advised. "So, I want you to turn round and lean against this cushion," Martha told him. She pulled a cushion down and put it against the base of the sofa, so it would not be harsh on his back, but she thought that the pain in his back that had distracted him from the issues with the toxin was now insignificant to the pain he was experiencing as a result of the toxin building.

"We'll help you," Donna assured him.

"Don't… hurt yourself…" the Doctor worried as Donna eased her unslung arm around him.

"Turn yourself over and then back against the cushion," Martha instructed. She heaved him over as he forced himself to move, crying out as he did so. He wanted to curl up not to lie back, but Martha pushed him back so that he was resting against the cushion. She let him bring his legs up a little. Martha pushed his T-shirt up a bit and pulled his pyjama bottoms down so they were across his hips but he was still covered over. She gently palpated over his abdomen. The whole of his tummy was tight and sore, but when she got close to the lower left hand side where she knew the organ that contained the toxin was he cried out at the pain that pressing down into the muscle caused. Donna sat on the floor next to him and held his hand. She looked away as Martha eased his pyjama trousers down further.

"Christ, Doctor?" Martha had seen him naked several times. Out of a medical interest she'd taken account of what his genitalia looked like. He didn't look that different from a human male. Perhaps a little tidier with his testicles slightly higher up on his body. He had a lower body temperature so they didn't have to dangle as far down, but they remained external. They were normally about the size of a small walnut and his scrotum was wrinkled, loose, and lightly haired. The skin was the same pale cream of the rest of his lower body that she doubted ever saw much sunlight at all, until he came back in shorts anyway. Now his testicles were incredibly swollen. They'd swollen up like a couple of balloons. The skin was tight and purple with bruising and thread veins snaked across them. Instead of being the size of walnuts they were closer to the size and colour of a couple of cricket balls.


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh God, oh shit?!" the Doctor gasped as he looked down on himself. He had felt them throbbing and hurting but he had no idea they were that bad. As the pain lanced through his side again, he screwed his eyes shut and cried out, but Martha could actually see the pulse of fluid building up behind the testicles. There was no surprise that he was totally soft. His penis flaccid and curling over the top of his massive right testicle.

Martha eased her fingers under his left testicle. She ran her gloved thumb over the top of it and felt the tightness of the skin. There was a risk if there was not some release in the internal pressure that the skin could actually start to rupture. Then he was in real trouble if he wasn't already. As she pressed around his swollen ball he cried out. "I'm sorry." Martha carefully eased him back down. It was going to be far too much for her to continue. "We need to release the pressure, Doctor." Martha didn't add that if they didn't he could end up losing both his testicles. "Now, I don't think for a minute that you're going to be able to contemplate doing anything yourself, but, we could try the natural way, or, I can try to do a double bilateral needle aspiration."

The Doctor groaned at the thought, but Martha wasn't finished. "If we can avoid needle aspiration then it would be better both in terms of the risks involved and in terms of recovery time."

"Okay."

"Are you sensitive and aroused in the same way that a human man?" Martha checked with him.

"Yeah," he confirmed.

"I'll just go and get some things then," Martha advised. She got up to go out of the room. While she was out a sharp pain seared through him again. It was so severe that he cried out and curled over. Donna tried to hold him.

"You can't seriously be thinking about getting aroused like this?" Donna sighed. She went to rub his back but there were spots of blood on the back of his T-shirt again.

"Don't think… there is… a choice…" the Doctor groaned.

"Will you still respond?" Donna checked with him. "Even if it's hurting?"

"Yeah… still… a man… underneath," the Doctor advised. Donna dropped a light kiss on the side of his head. "You're definitely a man," Donna teased him slightly. "Though I take it you don't normally try to squeeze those massive purple balls in that tight suit of yours?" she commented as she rubbed his shoulder. He'd curled over so he was lying over her thighs a little where she was sat beside him. She rubbed his shoulder and then his hair. She was frustrated by only having one hand to comfort him with. "Is there any chance that you will still enjoy it?" Donna asked him quietly.

"I don't… think so."

"But, you're still going to be coming right?"

"The toxin… will sting… and… it's going to have to be… over and over… and over… until I'm empty… then it's just going to fill… again and be… over and over… and over… again all stinging… and all sore."

"But, you're still going to be having an orgasm," Donna told him. "Can't you close your eyes and think of Rose or something?" she suggested as she ran her hands over his head.

"Not Rose…" the Doctor sighed. Donna cursed herself, way to open up further wounds for him. What was she thinking of?

"Then who? Come on, there must be someone?" Donna teased. "Who are you going to close your eyes and imagine doing it to you?"

"Not going… to tell you," the Doctor whispered, but before Donna could push him a further pain shot through him. He grimaced and gasped, trying to breathe through it, but he ended up gripping Donna's thigh hard enough that she was going to end up with finger-mark bruises on her flesh. She didn't care as the pain was ripped from his throat in a hoarse cry. She held him the best that she could.

Martha came back in. She had a roll of tissue, more gloves, some massage oil, some swabs, and things that looked pretty medical. It didn't look like the kit that would be taken in order to give someone a good time. "I think it will be easiest for all of us if you were able to get up and lie on your back on the sofa?" Martha suggested to the Doctor.

"His back has been bleeding a bit again," Donna commented.

"I've brought a tissue roll to protect the sofa," she advised and laid the long wide tissue over it to protect it from the blood from the Doctor's back and also from any spilled toxins.

"What about protecting his back?" Donna asked.

"S'okay," the Doctor assured her. He groaned as he tried to get up from where he had been lying using her thigh for a pillow. It had been the most comfortable he'd been for some time. He knew it wasn't fair though when she had a broken wrist as well. He wished that she didn't have a broken wrist. Not only because then she'd not be in pain, but then she might have been willing to do what needed to be done rather than Martha. This was about as awkward as it could get. He cried out and his hand went to his side as he got to his knees.

"Take it slowly," Martha hooked her arms through his and helped him up enough so he could sit on the edge of the sofa. "Turn and lie down," she suggested. "Put your head on the cushion there," she offered. "Bend your knees up and put your feet on the arm of the sofa," she offered. "That should relieve some of the cramping."

"I'll be back in a moment." Donna rubbed his shoulder as Martha started to get him prepared. He looked like he was going to throw up, cry out in pain, and like he was a rabbit stuck in the headlights all at the same time.

"I'm sorry," Martha offered and rubbed his abdomen lightly. "This is pretty horrible isn't it?"

"You could say that."

"I will try to be as gentle as I can be."

"If it works, then you need to keep going… it won't just be once like a human… but you will need to keep going… until I can't ejaculate any more… and it is um… dry."

"Okay," Martha commented. "You don't need to be embarrassed about this, Doctor. It's a normal bodily function."

"Really?" Donna asked as she came back in and dropped a bag down at the end of the sofa. "It's normal to get stung by a spine weasel and then need to get wanked off in order to get better? I think that sounds highly irregular to me, and, maybe it is just a con?" Donna suggested. The Doctor half laughed and Martha shook her head slightly. At least they were a bit more relaxed.

A pain ripped through the Doctor again. He brought his knees up and cried. Martha rubbed his abdomen to try and soothe it out, but it was clear that they just had to get on. She still had her gloves on. She was not going to think of it in any other way than making him ejaculate to rid him of toxins. She poured oil onto her hand, and then carefully lifted the Doctor's penis, making sure she didn't touch his throbbing swollen balls. They were quite literally getting close to bursting, she was sure of it, and she just hoped that they had not swollen to the point where the sperm ducts were being restricted. That was when it would not work and she'd have to put him under a general anaesthetic and try to get in with a 12 inch needle while avoiding the many vessels, nerves, and tubules on the way in. She really didn't want to do that on a human, never mind on a Time Lord.

She rubbed the oil over his limp shaft. He had his eyes closed, and he was breathing in long controlled breaths, to try and avoid another stabbing pain which would break his concentration. Martha stroked him slowly. She didn't go right down to his base so she didn't hurt him. He began to fill with blood in a similar manner to a human as his cock thickened and grew heavy. It expanded in Martha's hand as she continued to stroke him. He at least was capable of becoming aroused.

"Blimey, Time Boy, you're a skinny streak of nothing, where have you been hiding that?!" Donna exclaimed when Martha had worked him into a full erection. He was longer than both Martha's hands together as she ran them around him. He certainly didn't have a skinny penis either, it was quite thick, but the same length the whole way down and perfectly straight. Donna had to draw her eyes away from him and the way that Martha's hands were sliding up and down him or she might have ended up feeling a little jealous and this was to stop his balls bursting with all the poison collecting in them. She made sure she looked at the couple of veiny cricket balls either side rather than at the long shaft.

"Hey?" Donna knelt down beside the sofa and rubbed his chest lightly. "You imagining being away somewhere nice yet?" she asked him. He still looked more worried and more pained than enjoying it as he winced and shook his head. "What about if I do this?" Donna asked. She got a tiny bit of the oil on her fingers and she moved her hand up under his T-shirt and found his nipple. He twitched slightly and Donna couldn't help a tiny giggle as she ran her oiled fingers over his sensitive nub. She glanced down at Martha, but the medic nodded for her to continue. As far as they were both concerned the closer to enjoyment he got the quicker he was going to be able to ejaculate and recover. If that meant Donna tweaked his nipple then she was going to do it.

"Doctor?" Donna knelt down so that she was whispering in his ear. "Do Time Lords have prostates?" she asked him quietly as she slid her fingers over to his opposite nipple.

"Yeah," the Doctor whimpered. Martha was slowly stroking her hands up his cock. She started at his mid-shaft and went to his tip, circling it just below, and then running her thumbs over his head. She didn't go any lower down in case she accidentally hurt him more than he was hurting in general.

"Do you like having your prostate massaged?" Donna whispered.

"Not… like this…" the Doctor gasped. He winced as he tensed, not because of Martha's ministration but because his body was still trying to pump more toxic semen into his bursting testicles. He cried out. Martha paused, she held his shaft in one hand and just used her finger under the back of his head as she massaged across his abdomen to try and soothe the spasm for him with the other hand.

"It might get it over quicker?" Donna caressed his head and then kissed him in the middle of his forehead. She went and knelt at the end of the couch. Martha looked at her curiously, their conversation had been whispered. Donna only had one hand in use, but she had the bag. She opened it up and revealed that she had a thin vibrator with a soft round end that was designed for male or female stimulation. Donna got the oil. It had a flip cap and she opened it and then dribbled it onto the Doctor. He was already lying with his legs up to support his testicles on his abdomen so they were less painful than if they were hanging.

Donna let the oil run over him, but then she rubbed her finger over his anus. He twitched a little and Martha felt his cock jerk a bit in her hand. He winced and hissed, but he didn't tell her to stop. Donna circled his opening with her finger. She'd had a few boyfriends who liked this in the past and she knew just how to do it. In a human anyway. She didn't imagine the Doctor was going to be too much different. She just wished that she was doing this to him in more pleasurable circumstances, or, um, not wishing that she was doing it to him at all because they were just mates, only ever mates, and that was how it was supposed to stay. She was only doing it because she was his mate and he was sick and needed it.

She eased her finger into him. She was slow, making sure her nail didn't catch, as she eased it in past the ring of muscle. She was disappointed that she had her right hand in a cast, but she was also pleased. If she didn't she might have had the overwhelming urge to take his cock and her other fist and suck his head. She was sure that he'd appreciate a hot human tongue around his bulging tip. She eased her finger in as far as her first knuckle, pausing so he accommodated her and then eased in a bit more, angling upward until she felt the fleshy bulb. She ran her finger over it and the Doctor moaned. The way his cock moved slightly in Martha's hands she knew that he was liking it. His eyes were closed and his head was back and for those few moments they let him enjoy the sensations because the fear was that when they brought him to the edge as they had to that it was not just going to be an explosion of toxic semen but also of pain.

Donna rubbed his prostate with her finger tip. Circling around it and then rubbing back and forth over it. She eased a second finger in and massaged him with short thrusts as Martha ran her hand up and down and over his head. A bead of clear fluid leaked from the top of his penis so they knew he was getting close. Donna slid her fingers out of him and trickled some more massage oil over him before she picked up the vibration. She eased it in. He let out a deep guttural moan as he accepted it. She pulled it back a little and pushed it in, wiggling it a bit so that it rubbed against the right spot for him. She left it there and she twisted the end so that it buzzed and started to vibrate. The Doctor arched and grimaced. Donna wiggled the vibrator so that it varied the pressure on his prostrate as Martha jerked him off.

"It's going to… start…" the Doctor gasped. "Fuck… I'm going to… it's going to… it's going to… hurt…" he was desperate to cum and desperate not to at the same time. There was no changing his mind now, they had taken him past the point of no return. His cock swelled further, his head darkened and the groove through the centre deepened. Martha was twisting her hand just behind his head with a medic's precision perfectly stimulating the right bundle of nerves. She had a clear glass jar and she picked it up. Donna held the vibrator against his prostate as his cock twitched and he tensed. His horribly swollen balls seemed to ripple and rise even as they bulged. He cried out but it was unclear how much of it was pain and how much of it was due to the streams of semen that burst from the end of his cock as he keened and bucked. It spurted from him in five long streaks. Martha caught it in the jar.

"He said not to stop until he has a dry orgasm," Martha advised. She felt cruel as she continued to hold the jar just off his tip and to jerk him off. The Doctor was whimpering and starting to writhe a bit. He hissed and whined as he came again. The toxins that had concentrated in his oily ejaculate stinging him as they left. It burned his entire length with an internal fire that made him want to slam his cock into a bucket of crushed ice. Martha was still stroking him. Beating on him. She slowed as he actually ejaculated but then she started again, speeding up, squeezing and milking him. He didn't want it.

It took every ounce of his diminishing strength not to scream at her to stop. Tears squeezed out of his eyes and spilled down his cheeks as he came again and then again. Each thread of semen igniting his cock, each spasm tearing at his guts, and wrenching his bruised balls beyond any kind of pleasure. He couldn't even concentrate on Donna now. He couldn't concentrate on the vibrations that had spread through him and had triggered the orgasm that should have been a welcome relief but was instead a torturous agony.

He had five separate orgasms. Each worse than the other until the sixth left him tensing and twitching and yelling as his body rocked with the effort, but it didn't produce anything. Martha slowed down. She got a cool cloth and she gently wrapped it around him. Just stroking him through it as he started to soften. Donna eased the vibrator out of him. Martha could see that there was some streaks of blood mixed in with the semen she had collected. She had no idea how sore he had to be.

"That's it, Doctor," Martha assured him. He groaned and cried out as she examined his testicles. They remained swollen and bruised looking, but they were not so tight and it was not as desperate. It was still as painful for him though. He curled up on his side, bringing his knees up as close to his chest as he could, he wedged one arm in the gap between his thighs and his abdomen. The other he hooked over his head as he shuddered and shivered.

"We'll leave you to rest for an hour or so, during which time the ejaculate is going to build and then we're going to have to do it again before you get so full again," Martha warned him. He knew that, but he didn't think he was going to be able to cope with it. He didn't acknowledge her as much as he simply cried.

"Sit up a moment," Donna insisted. He grumbled his discontent. "If you don't sit up then you don't get a cuddle," she told him. "You don't have to sit right up, just sit up a little bit," she suggested. He eased himself up a bit and Donna moved to sit down. He laid back down with his head in her lap. He wriggled to try and get comfortable and then Donna did her best to tuck the blanket around him. She caressed his head. "How many times do we need to do that?" Donna asked him quietly.

"Another two… maybe three?" he whispered.

"I'm sorry," Donna stroked his hair over his ear in slow tender arches with her fingertips as he hooked his arm around her. He sniffed and struggled to get comfortable. "How are you feeling now? Are you feeling any better? There was quite a lot came out, so that is a lot of toxin isn't it?"

"It's burning," the Doctor whimpered. "It's hurting."

"Try not to think about it," Donna suggested. She didn't know what else she could say. "See if you can get some sleep?" She stroked his head. The Doctor moaned softly.

Martha came back in. She had a tray. "Doctor," she went to him. "I've got an anaesthetic gel. It's only a short lived one but the TARDIS says it is fine and it will help for a while." She eased the blanket away from him where he was curled up. They'd not put him away and he was now flaccid again. He moaned in discomfort as Martha took hold of him. She picked up the syringe. It had a strange pointed cone attached to the tip rather than an actual needle. Martha eased his foreskin back. "You're going to be a little sore," Martha warned him. The Doctor cried out as Martha slid the end of the syringe into his urethra. She injected the anaesthetic gel so that it filled the inflamed tube. When she pulled the syringe out there was some blood on it. He was raw inside. "That should feel better almost instantly," Martha commented.

"It does," the Doctor whispered and sighed. "Thank you."

"See if you can get some sleep," Martha suggested. "It's only a short acting relief. When we're finished there is a longer acting one we can use," Martha assured him. She tucked him back in.

"Is that better?" Donna asked him.

"Yeah."

"Are you going to try to get some sleep?"

"I don't think I can," the Doctor complained miserably. "Everything else still hurts."

"Awww, my poorly Spaceman?" Donna rubbed his shoulder lightly. The control for the screen was on the floor. "Ease up a moment. I can't reach the remote." Donna picked it up. "What do you want to watch?"

"I don't mind."

"What about a porno to get you in the mood for later?" Donna teased him.

"No, thank you very much," he half laughed. "I don't think I will want anything else to do with sex ever again after today."

"Oh, that's a shame," Donna commented.

"Um."

"I mean, it's not something you want to be put off is it?" Donna clarified.

"No, I suppose it isn't," the Doctor agreed. "How is your wrist feeling?"

"It's alright, aching and throbbing a bit. I can take some more drugs in an hour or so," Donna told him. "I'm fine though. Happy just to sit here with you and watch a movie, so what is it going to be?"

"You choose, but nothing sexy."

"Anything from the kid's channel?" she teased the Doctor. She put Ice Age on for him, knowing that he found the antics of the squirrel hilariously funny for some reason, but the first time he came onto screen hunting the elusive acorn he didn't giggle. Donna looked down. He'd fallen asleep.

They had to torture the Doctor three more times over the rest of the day. Each time it was worse and more painful, as they had to leave an hour in between so that his body could force toxins into the ejaculate and then they forced him to expel it. The Doctor was weeping by the time they had done it the last time. Donna had been as well and Martha wasn't that far away. She knew that as a doctor sometimes they had to perform painful procedures on people to aid their recoveries, but that had seemed more difficult.

The Doctor was completely exhausted. He laid on the sofa when they had finished with him, not even bothering to curl up again. He was spent in every which way he could be. Martha had brought in the longer lasting anaesthetic gel and she gave him a dose of that. She then made him sit up properly on the sofa and lean forward so she could check the wounds on his back and apply some new ointment. Then he was given a choice of going into sickbay to sleep or to go into his own bed and to sleep, but he wasn't going to be allowed just to sleep on the sofa. It was a bit too short for him to lie comfortable and it was quite hard. It wasn't the ideal place for him to get some decent rest.

He agreed to go to his own bed, but he barely had the strength to stand and when he did he couldn't straighten up. His back, his abdomen, his groin, his thighs, all of them had seized with the efforts of five rounds of orgasms that his body had been both welcoming to get rid of the toxins and resisting because they hurt so much. He felt chilled to the bone and worn. Martha and Donna both linked arms with him and supported him as he went through into his bedroom. They got him tucked up into bed, then Donna sat with him, just stroking his head until he fell asleep. When he was sound asleep Donna went back out to where Martha was clearing up.

"He's resting," Donna offered and Martha nodded. "Thank you for what you've done for him today, what you've done for both of us."

"What you mean sexually torturing him?" Martha asked and shook her head slightly. "Don't thank me for that."

"There was no choice," Donna told her. "And, he's going to get better now. I will thank you, because you helped him. It was horrible, but, it was necessary. He will be alright now won't he?"

"Yeah, he should be. I'm going to give him some antibiotics as the toxins have irritated the inside of his urethra and we don't want him to get an infection. I expect it's going to be sore for a few days. We'll have to watch him when he goes to pee," Martha offered. "We need to make sure he drinks plenty of water so that his urine is dilute or it is going to hurt like Hell the first few times he goes. There has been some haemorrhaging in and around his testicles. When he's less painful I'll examine him and get the TARDIS to do a scan to make sure that there is no lasting damage, but I don't think there will be."

Donna thought about making some kind of joke about the Doctor obviously never realising that Martha was a dominatrix, but she could see the medic was bordering on disturbed about what they had done for him. Instead she went into the galley and made drinks, managing to do it with one hand. She carried both cups in one hand and she thought she was going to then find the doors impossible, but the TARDIS opened them for her.

"I want to have a look at your wrist now," Martha commented. "How is it feeling?"

"It's quite sore," Donna admitted. "I'm trying not to think about it."

"What is it feeling like?"

"It's throbbing and aching."

"In your wrist?"

"Yeah, and my fingers," Donna confirmed.

"What I need to do is split the cast for you," Martha told her. "Your wrist and hand will be swelling up and what we don't want is for it to get too tight, so we'll split it and then there is a slight give in the cast. As long as you leave it in the sling it won't be any more painful."

"Okay."

"Come and sit down then," Martha instructed. Donna went and sat on one of the beds. Martha got her to put her arm up on an over bed table and then she got a cast saw. It looked lethal and made nervous when she thought about Martha cutting through the cast next to her skin with a circular saw until Martha demonstrated that it wouldn't cut the skin by putting it against her own jeans, and then thanking God that the TARDIS version was no different to another version because sawing through her femoral artery would have done nothing to assure Donna.

She cut a single line along the back of the cast from the tip of it to the end. She then used a narrow piece of metal in the cut and just cracked it open a little. The padding was still intact underneath. "That's it," Martha assured Donna. "It won't get too tight now." She checked her fingers that weren't splinted by pinching her nails to make sure that the colour returned. "You need to make sure you keep it up, your fingers are a little puffy but that is to be expected. We don't want them to get too swollen though. You've got some pretty colours coming out along here as well," she indicated towards her little finger. "There was no bony damage to your little finger, but looking at that amount of bruising it is possible you dislocated and popped it back." Martha took hold of her finger lightly and felt around it. Donna winced. "We'll keep an eye on it," Martha commented. "If it is still as sore when we change the cast and you're going to be able to start using your hand a bit, then we may have to extend the splint over that finger as well, in the meantime it will be fine," Martha offered.

"Okay," Donna accepted.

"Now, how are you doing with the pain relief? Have you been taking it on time?" Martha asked. "It is fairly important to keep on taking it at the right time so that the levels in your blood stream don't fluctuate too much. If you need something stronger for a couple of days then there is no harm in taking it," Martha assured her.

"I think I'm alright with what I've got," Donna commented.

"If you change your mind then make sure you let me know," Martha insisted. "I think it's about time we had something else to eat as well. I'll make something for the Doctor too, but I'm not going to wake him up, we can reheat it for him later. He only sleeps when he really needs to and he's going to have to rest."

"I'll go and make sure he's still resting," Donna offered.

"Okay, do you like fish?" Martha checked with her.

"As long as it's not looking at me," Donna confirmed and Martha laughed nodding her understanding. She didn't particularly like being scrutinised by her dinner either. Martha went out the TARDIS to her flat in order to cook their meal. She was going to make a very bland version for the Doctor to eat as he'd not be wanting to urinate anything spicy for a while, but she had got some salmon steaks. She'd not cook his fish until he woke up anyway so it didn't dry out too much, but the rest of it she would do at the same time. She set herself up with a glass bowl, soy sauce, chilli flakes, and lemon in order to coat the fish for her and Donna.

Donna went into the Doctor's room. He was still curled up on the mattress in more or less the same position that he'd been left in. It wasn't the position of comfortable sleep but the position of someone too worried about moving in case it hurt as he guarded his abdomen and groin. He was asleep though, as far as Donna could tell, anyway, as he'd curled a bit further so only the top of his hair was sticking out above the duvet. She eased the duvet down from over his face so that he didn't overheat. He remained incredibly pale and his eyes were closed. His breathing was deep and even indicating that he was in fact sleeping. Donna caressed his head for a moment and then she left him to rest.


	7. Chapter 7

It was half eight when Donna and Martha sat down at the table in Martha's kitchen to eat the meal the medic had cooked. It was a Chinese marinated salmon steak with a bite of chili with a creamy mashed potato with peas and sweetcorn through it. It was delicious. Donna hadn't realised quite how hungry she was.

By the time they'd eaten and Donna had insisted on helping Martha with the dishwasher the best that she could it they were both knackered. It was hardly surprising really. The TARDIS had shown up at just after three in the morning and it was now half nine at night. It had also been an emotionally trying day. They both went into the TARDIS and into the Doctor's bedroom. The Time Lord remained tucked up in bed and asleep.

Martha suspected he would remain asleep for the rest of the night. He had a lot of recovering to do. How he was going to feel about any of it remained to be seen once the physical aspect of his recovering was done. Medically they had taken the safest route and encouraged natural expulsion of the toxins as opposed to a quite invasive and risky technique, but emotionally? She just hoped that they had not damaged their friendship in any way, especially not his relationship with Donna.

They went off to bed. Martha went back into her flat and into her bed but left the TARDIS door open so that she could hear if there was anything going on inside. As soon as she was in bed she was sound asleep. Donna went to bed. She tried to get comfortable, but her wrist was throbbing a fair bit despite only just taking the pain relief. She didn't want to now go and say to Martha that actually she'd like the stronger one because she knew the medic had been rudely awoken at three in the morning and unlike her, had not dosed during the day.

Donna tried to get to sleep, but in the end she gave up. She went to check the Doctor remained asleep and then she went into the galley and made herself a cup of cocoa. While she was sitting in there she got an impression from the TARDIS that she should go into the sickbay. Concerned that it was something to do with the Doctor she followed the feeling and found that there was a bottle of pills on the side by the main screen. The indication was for her to take one or two of them now and then every six hours but no more than 8 in any 24 hour period. Donna thanked the TARDIS. She took one of the pills not wanting to go straight for the two. Then she went back to bed with her cocoa. She wasn't sure if her wrist stopped hurting or if she simply stopped caring, but she drifted off to sleep with her cocoa unfinished.

Martha woke first in the morning. It was just after six. She popped into the TARDIS and found both the Doctor and Donna still sleeping comfortably and went back out into her flat to shower and dress. She then returned and sat in the galley having made herself a coffee. It wasn't that long until Donna came in. She looked fairly well rested. As she sat nursing a mug of steaming coffee courtesy of Martha she admitted that the TARDIS had given her some additional drugs. She was feeling a little bit groggy and drowsy with them in combination with the codeine. Martha confirmed it was what she'd have suggested in tramadol and recommended that Donna didn't do anything too strenuous while on them and certainly not to be operating any heavy machinery or driving. She didn't plan to do either with her arm strapped to her chest, the most strenuous thing she had planned for the day was a shower and then movies in the library.

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast Martha and Donna remained sitting in the galley for a second round of drinks. Martha had nothing planned for the day until the evening when she was going to go out with her sister. She was going to wait to find out how the Doctor was before she definitely confirmed with her sister that she would be meeting her as planned. They were just going to go late night shopping, and then for a meal, and maybe to the cinema and spend some sisterly time together.

While Donna and Martha were sitting at the galley table the Doctor appeared in the doorway. "Hello, you," Donna grinned. She pulled the seat out beside her. "Come and sit down, how are you feeling this morning?"

"Better," he acknowledged but he was slow moving and wide legged as he came and sat down at the table. "Is there tea going?" he asked hopefully. Martha nodded and got up to make him a cup of tea. At least if he was drinking then he was going to be peeing. Martha got him a cup of tea but she also poured him a half pint glass of water and gave him that as well. He knew that he had to flush everything through so he didn't question the water just picked it up and downed it and then pulled a face before sipping scalding hot tea so that everything was alright again.

"We're going to have a quiet day today," Donna suggested.

"You're going to get no arguments from me," the Doctor offered as he shifted uncomfortably on his chair.

"Awww, is Mr Winkle still sore?" Donna asked him.

"Mr Winkle?" the Doctor regarded her curiously. "If you mean my penis, then yes, it is still sore."

"Do you want some egg on toast?" Martha asked him.

"No, thank you, I'm not really hungry at the moment. I'll have something later."

"Once you've finished your tea I want to see you in the sickbay," Martha told him. He knew he wasn't going to get away with it so he just nodded.

"How is your wrist feeling?" he asked Donna.

"Martha split the cast so it wouldn't get too swollen up," Donna advised. "It was pretty sore during the night so the TARDIS provided me with some tramadol."

"Now you're floating without the vortex?" the Doctor teased slightly.

"I'm not that bad, I feel a bit sleepy," Donna admitted.

"I'm sure that is better than being in too much pain," Martha interjected. The Doctor finished his tea and then went with Martha into the sickbay. Donna remained in the galley she didn't want to embarrass the Doctor any more than he already was. As he left the galley she could see that there were still areas of his back where his T-shirt looked wet and over his shoulder it looked like it had been bleeding and that the material of his T-shirt might have stuck. Her poor Time Lord was still most definitely under the weather.

"So, how are you feeling this morning?" Martha asked him.

"You want the list?" the Doctor half laughed as if it was a joke.

"Yeah, I think so," Martha nodded as she guided him to sit on the edge of one of the beds.

"My penis feels like it is filled with razor blades and that I've been kicked several times. My guts feel like they've been twisted and pulled. My back is still a bit hot and sore, though that is not as bad as it was, I've still got a bit of a headache, and I feel worn out despite sleeping for ten hours."

"So pretty rotten still?" Martha confirmed, but the Doctor just sighed.

The Doctor complied with Martha's examination. He was still swollen and sore. He certainly wasn't going to be comfortable putting his suit on yet. She had to soak some of his T-shirt in order to peel it away from his back. Some areas where the stings had concentrated over his shoulder and into the middle of his back were still inflamed and looked very sore, but where there were isolated stings that had not triggered and released the secondary poison they had reduced to red dots despite Donna's shoulder still having a ferocious looking sting on it with a clear boundary between raised red skin and normal milky colouring.

The TARDIS checked a pinprick sample of the Doctor's blood and confirmed there was no toxins there. There was no way the Doctor was even contemplate providing a semen sample to check there was no toxin there so instead the TARDIS scanned him and found nothing to worry about. She recommended his back was coated in ointment again, he had an antihistamine injection, he was given a general analgesia and then Martha delivered the anaesthetic into his urethra for him. He didn't even bother being embarrassed about it anymore, what was the point after the day before?

The TARDIS assured both him and Martha that he'd be fine in a day or so and that he just needed to rest and relax. It was going to be another library day. It took a while for the drugs to start to work and then he felt a little brighter, but he was still content just to lounge around, watch movies, read books, and when Donna got a jigsaw out they sat at the table and did that together.

In the evening Martha went out with Tish as planned and she didn't go back into the TARDIS until the following morning. The Doctor was almost back to his normal self. He was still a bit slower on his feet and he'd not put his suit back on yet as he remained a little bruised and swollen. When Martha came in during the morning she was surprised to find that the Doctor had got out of his pyjamas. He'd put a pair of knee length shorts on and he had a light coloured loose shirt that didn't cling to the odd marks on his back. He was waiting for her on the flight deck.

"What plans have you got for today?" he asked Martha as she went into the TARDIS to make sure they were alright.

"None, except making sure you're alright. It's probably a bit too early to change Donna's cast over yet, so that is probably the plan for tomorrow or the day after, but I've got no plans at all."

"You don't need to pop in and see your mum or anything?"

"I can do, but it's not a plan as such," Martha offered. "Why?"

"Well, Donna still needs to rest and I am still a bit sore so don't want to go running around too much, but, there is only so long we can stay parked in your bedroom isn't there?"

"I've no issues with your being parked in my bedroom," Martha offered. "As long as you don't make a habit of it," she added.

"Do you fancy coming back to the islands for a few days?" the Doctor asked. "Donna will tell you, apart from a bad tempered spine weasel; that is in the jungle and not on the beach, it is really quite beautiful and relaxing. What about it? A few days on a beach? Safe waters, some snorkelling, sun bathing, the TARDIS parked just by?" he prompted trying to make it sound enticing rather than him wanting to be outside and getting some air.

"Sounds great," Martha accepted. "When do you want to go?"

"How quickly can you pack a bag?" the Doctor asked her. "I'd quite like to set going before Donna has got up? So she can have a surprise waking up back on the beach?"

"You're a big softy aren't you?" Martha teased him.

"She's looked after me, you have both looked after me, but we were over half a mile away from the TARDIS in thick jungle when I got hit with those spines and she got me back," the Doctor offered. "And, she's hurt. I don't like that she's hurt," the Doctor admitted to Martha. "She likes the beach."

"I'll go and pack a bag," Martha advised him.

"Make sure you have your swimming gear," the Doctor instructed.

"Beach holiday, got ya," Martha confirmed. She went back out into her bedroom and packed a load of things. She knew what she didn't have the TARDIS would have provided but it was nice to have her own clothes as well. She absently wondered if her bedroom was as it had been left.

As soon as Martha was back on board the Doctor programmed the TARDIS to take them back to where they had been before she had tracked the phone signal back to Martha's flat. She was happy to take them back there so that they could all relax and recover together. When they landed he opened the door of the TARDIS. She was parked at the back of the beach again beyond the normal tide line and positioned so that the door framed a view down the beach and out to the turquoise seat that stretched to the clear blue of the sky and was illuminated by the brilliant orange of the sun high above them.

"It looks beautiful," Martha commented. "Like a real treasure island," she offered. She stepped out of the TARDIS into the sand and saw the jungle rising behind them over the slopes of the long extinct volcano. The beach was a greeny bluish grey colour rather than sandy white, but it was soft when it ran through her fingers. The beach was wide enough and there was a line of seaweeds and drift woods where the tide reached at high tide.

It was a gentle sloping beach into a clear lagoon, but there were rocky areas at the sides of the bay area which would make it even more sheltered for swimming and paddling. The sun was warm on her skin but the sea breeze was refreshing so it was neither too humid nor oppressively hot. She was not surprised that Donna liked it. It was like they'd stepped into a holiday brochure.

"Think you could relax here a few days?" the Doctor asked her.

"I could stay here a month!" Martha exclaimed and laughed.

"You could," the Doctor offered with a slight shrug of the shoulders.

"Don't be daft. I've got to go back to work on Monday," Martha commented.

"The TARDIS is a time machine Martha, we could stay a month, and then drop you back in time for work on Monday?" he offered.

"It's certainly tempting." Martha stood on the beach and looked down along the sand.

"Think about it, no reason to decide now, is there?" the Doctor offered. They went back inside to the galley. It was another hour before Donna got up out of bed. Her hair was all mussed up where she had not been able to do much with it but where it had been falling out of the plait she'd put in a couple of days before. She felt like she needed a decent shower and a proper hair wash. The painkillers were still making her feel a bit muggy and she'd woken up with her wrist throbbing and her fingers hurting and not in a particularly great mood, so when she went into the galley and found the Doctor looking more or less recovered and pretty pleased with himself she wasn't really in the mood for it. She wanted a coffee and she wanted to have a decent shower and she didn't really want to have it with a bin bag over her arm and have to figure out how to do everything one handed. Even taking the lid off the shower gel was going to be a struggle.

"You're looking better," Donna grumbled at him.

"Almost fully done," the Doctor agreed and grinned. He got up and hugged Donna. "Come on, I've got something to show you?"

"Doctor?" she groaned. If he'd started doing some maintenance again and he wanted to show her the sparkly manifolds under the central console before she'd even got out of her pyjamas and had a coffee then she was going to kill him. "Can't I have a coffee first?"

"Nope," the Doctor grinned. He linked arms with her to lead her out but she resisted him grumpily.

"You better go," Martha commented and rolled her eyes.

"Has he made you look at it as well?"

"Yeah," Martha agreed and nodded. She didn't follow them as the Doctor led Donna out.

"You better not have been polishing things again," Donna groaned at him. "Has Martha cleared you for maintenance yet? I'm not having you making yourself ill again?"

"I've not been doing maintenance. I'm not going to for a few days yet," he offered. He went to the door to the TARDIS and opened it. The sunlight streamed in and made Donna wince slightly, before she realised that they weren't in Martha's bedroom anymore. She went to the door. She could hear the sounds of the jungle behind them and the gentle lapping of the stream.

"You brought us back here?"

"Yep," the Doctor grinned.

"You almost died in the middle of the jungle and you brought us back here?!" Donna exclaimed trying to sound angry with him. His expression fell and he rubbed the back of his neck, catching one of the tiny blisters that remained from the thorns.

"Um, I…"

"Thank you!" Donna grinned and very gently hugged him.

"We won't be able to waterproof that cast, but when you've got the new one on we will. You'll not be able to go snorkelling or diving for now, only paddling," the Doctor offered sounding apologetic, but Donna just laughed.

"Even better. Then I can't get eaten by those sharky things."

"They were only babies," the Doctor insisted. "They'd not have troubled us."

"Yeah, you say that," Donna teased him, but then she grinned. She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

They went back through to the galley where Martha was making drinks again. Donna sat down and had her coffee. She asked Martha if she would be kind enough to take the plait out of her hair so she could go and get a proper shower. Then they wrapped her arm in bags and taped it so it was waterproofed so she could go in the shower and freshen up.

Donna spent some time in the shower. When she came out the Doctor was waiting in her room to make sure she didn't need a hand with anything. She asked him if he minded going to get Martha so she could brush her hair out, but he pouted and claimed that he could do that. He got her to sit at her dressing table and then he pulled another chair up behind her. He gently brushed her hair for her. It had kinked with being in the plait for three days and there were some knots in it, but he was gentle as he worked them out until he could pull the brush through her hair easily.

She left it loose and damp so it could dry naturally in the sunshine as she fully intended to make use of the time on the beach. The Doctor made sure he put plenty of suntan lotion on her. There were even more areas that she could not reach now she only had one hand in use and he made sure she was coated, or as he called it, receiving a slight tap on his thigh for his trouble, basted.

Martha had gone outside and she had laid three enormous towels out on the beach. The TARDIS had provided a cool box and drinks on ice. They spent the morning lounging on the beach and paddling in the warm water up to their knees, but nothing more strenuous than that. Donna and Martha both fetched themselves books from the library and teased the Doctor who was scouring the beach for interesting things that he could collect, sonic, and gift to the other two. He'd taken his shirt off and the sunshine was doing a good job at drying the rest of the sores on his back up. Martha was fairly sure she'd be able to take the stitches out and there was only the odd bruised circle on there now. He was walking more easily as well.

At one point Donna and Martha were both watching him as he whooped at something. He then went running along the beach only to drop down onto his knees. They'd both stood up thinking that he'd pulled himself or that he was in pain again, only to see him digging with his hands down into the wet sand after a crab that was trying to bury itself even faster. The poor crustacean did not succeed and it was dragged out of its escape burrow by an inquisitive Time Lord.

"If he comes over here with that thing I am going to kill him," Donna grumbled as the Time Lord looked up and saw them watching him.

"If that thing gets him with his claws then he can go and treat himself," Martha added just as the Time Lord squeaked and dropped the crab which took the opportunity to escape. The Doctor sucked at his offended finger, he looked over to Donna and Martha wondering if it was worth going and complaining that he'd been nipped by a crab, but judging by the way Martha was stood akimbo and Donna had folded her uninjured arm over her cast? He just waved and carried on his exploration of the beach.

"Nutter." Donna chuckled as she sat back down on her towel.

"You really care about him don't you?" Martha commented.

"What? The Doctor?" Donna checked and Martha nodded. "Yeah, course I do, he's my mate." She looked down the beach to where the Time Lord had found a bit of drift wood and was dragging along the sand for some reason she was sure made perfect sense to him if to no one else.

"Just your mate?" Martha asked her.

"Just his mate," Donna confirmed. "That is all he wants. We both made that pretty clear when I started travelling with him."

"Are you sure, because, I mean the way he takes care of you?" Martha suggested.

"Don't be daft." Donna laughed. "I think we better get you a hat, the sunshine is obviously addling your brain, all he wants is a mate."

About an hour later Martha rose and stretched from the towel. "I'm going to go and stretch my legs," she offered. "You fancy a walk or are you staying here?" she asked Donna. The red head had her book balanced on her stomach and her sunhat perched just over her brow and was lying back in the shade enjoying the sun's warmth without direct rays.

"Quite happy here."

Martha got up and wrapped her sarong around her otherwise bikini clad body and walked down to the surf. She went into the cool water so that it lapped around her ankles and then she strolled up the beach toward the Time Lord. He had found other bits of drift wood and had laid them all out on the beach beside each other. Martha chuckled and shook her head.

"You've got the TARDIS there," she teased him. "You don't need to build a raft in order to escape you know. Is it that horrible being stuck on the beach with the two of us that you need to build your own escape raft?"

"Course not, I'm just, well look. With stuff just on the beach we can build a raft and then get to the next island," the Doctor suggested.

"Or, you could jump in the TARDIS," Martha offered. "And, don't be lifting anything too heavy, alright?" she reminded him.

"I won't," the Doctor assured her. "Where are you going?" he asked her.

"I'm just going to wander up the beach for a while. Donna just took some more painkillers and I think she's going to have a snooze," Martha advised. She saw the Doctor look up the beach with some concern. "Its fine, she's in the shade, and she's plenty of sunscreen on," Martha assured him.

"Okay, good," the Doctor accepted. "Have you got sunscreen on?" he checked with Martha. "Did you and Donna baste each other?"

"Yeah, we did," Martha confirmed. "You could probably do with some basting as well," she reminded the Time Lord. He pulled some sunscreen out of his shorts pocket. It was a spray on one and Martha sprayed it over the tops of his shoulders and the back of his neck and then got him to close his eyes and sprayed his nose. He sniffed and sneezed and then pouted. "Care to join me in a stroll?" Martha asked him.

"Yeah, okay," the Doctor agreed. He took Martha's hand as they both walked through the surf.

"This really is a beautiful place," Martha remarked as they strolled. "Quite romantic," she added.

"I wouldn't know about that," the Doctor commented. "But it is pretty."

"I am going to say something to you once, Doctor," Martha advised him. "It doesn't have to be a discussion and you don't have to confirm or deny or comment at all if you don't want to, okay?"

"Um, yes, okay," the Doctor puzzled. He was worried that their trip was bringing back some of Martha's old feelings.

"You don't have to sound so worried." Martha squeezed his hand. "I'm not about declare my undying love for you or anything," she teased him.

"Well, that is a relief," he added and grinned as Martha tapped him.

"The other day, when we had to make you ejaculate," Martha started.

"Don't remind me," the Doctor groaned his embarrassment.

"I know it was horrible and I am so sorry that it had to be done, but, you are almost fully recovered now and there is no guarantee that needle aspiration would have worked."

"It was the safest of ways to do it," the Doctor agreed. "I would just rather forget the whole ordeal if I'm honest."

"I don't blame you," Martha accepted. "But, there were brief times when it seemed that you might have been enjoying some aspects of it, and, that is normal and natural. I know that Donna was suggesting that you closed your eyes and thought of something nice and someone nice," Martha advised. "Now, I don't know if you did that, and I don't want you to tell me either way if you don't want to, I'm not prying. I am just going to say this once, and you need to think about it. I know as well as anyone that you lost Rose and it broke your hearts, but I don't want you to make the same mistake again. You deserve to be happy, Doctor, you don't deserve to live within some self-purgatory through fear of loss. If it was Rose you closed your eyes and thought about then I'm sorry," Martha told him. "If it was Donna? Then you should tell her."

The Doctor didn't laugh at Martha as though she was completely insane. He didn't explode at her and tell her to mind her own business. She'd braced herself for either response, instead he remained silent as he continued to walk hand in hand along the beach with her. Martha had assured him that he didn't have to comment, but now she was itching to know, except she couldn't push him. She could almost hear the clogs behind his skull spinning and whirring as the processed what she'd said and thought it through.

"Donna is a mate," the Doctor responded after eleven long strides during which he'd failed to pick his feet properly and now had dollops of wet sand hiding his toes.

"I can see that," Martha accepted. "Very good mates."

"Yes," the Doctor agreed. "Neither of us are looking for anything different."

"Do you never wonder why so many people say that it is when you're not looking for anything different that something different actually arises?" Martha asked.

"Because they're idiots?" he suggested cheekily and Martha chuckled at him.

"Because it's true," Martha told him. "It's none of my business, of course, just, don't waste a chance to be happy."

"What do you think I should do?"

"I think you should have a think about what you want," Martha advised. "Then, when you figure out that it is actually Donna, I think you should let me pop the full cast on her arm and then drop me off back for work and bring her back here and then you should tell her."

"What if she chases me round the beach slapping me with a bit of wet seaweed?"

"Then I want you to film it," Martha commented deadly seriously. The Doctor just looked at her and she burst out laughing. "She won't, Doctor."


	8. Chapter 8

Over the next couple of days the Doctor fully recovered and returned to his usual self, except, he was the perfect host to both Donna and Martha. He cooked their meals on the beach. Once he even went as far as going out with a snorkel and a spear and coming back with fish to cook over an open flame. It couldn't get fresher than that. Martha teased Donna that it was because she'd broken her wrist and he was feeling guilty, but she assured the medic that he'd done that the last time they were there as well. She wondered if he thought that cooking on the beach for a few days would mean he didn't have to cook anything else for the entire year.

On their third morning there instead of heading out onto the beach after breakfast they headed into the sickbay. They were going to scan and then change the cast on Donna's wrist. It was easier to do with two pairs of hands so Martha was pleased that the Doctor had insisted on coming in as well as long as he didn't simply hover and worry rather than assist.

Donna sat recumbent on one of the beds and Martha pulled a table up to the side of it on which she positioned Donna's cast arm. She made sure that all of the things were ready and then she got the bone saw. She extended the cut she had already made across the outside of the cast across her hand and along the thumb spica, then she made another cut along the opposite side of the cast so that it was in two halves. She cracked it open and eased the top of the cast off and then used a pair of blunt ended scissors to cut through the internal padding material to reveal Donna's wrist. The last thing she did was cut through the tape on the finger splints and eased them off as well. Her fingers and into the back of her hand were a dark blue purple with bruising. Her wrist was still slightly puffy with swelling, but the bruising was dark around the base of her thumb and through the side of her wrist. The Doctor winced on her behalf.

"All we're going to do is ease your arm out of this cast and let it lie on a pillow so the TARDIS can do a scan in a natural position, and then we will apply a new cast for you," Martha commented.

"Is it hurting?" the Doctor checked with her.

"Not really," Donna assured him. "You don't have to fuss so much."

"Of course I do," the Doctor pouted. He went over to the pharmacy area and got a pot of thick white cream. There was an area on the outside of her hand where it looked like she might have got a bit of sand in the cast and it had rubbed the skin a little. He spread the cream over it tenderly.

"The scans are looking good," Martha confirmed. "We're going to get away with just putting another spica cast on. It can go on straight now as well," she assured Donna. "That will mean it is easier for you to start using your hand a little. You're still going to have your fingers splinted so it will be awkward for you, but once the cast is dry you'll be able to take the sling off. You'll be able to knock him around with it when he misbehaves."

"Don't tell her that," the Doctor pouted.

"Alright, Donna, we're just going to straighten your wrist out to pop the new cast on. It may be a little sore, but it's the only bit that is going to hurt," Martha warned her. She got Donna to raise her arm so it was resting on her elbow then she pulled on a thin stockinette over her arm and wrist. Her wrist seemed to have stiffened in the slightly rotated and cocked position of the first cast. "Doctor, if you could ready with the padding material it would be helpful?" Martha suggested. "I'll position her wrist if you could do the casting?"

"What colour do you want?" the Doctor asked Donna. "TARDIS blue?" he looked at her hopeful. She nodded that she'd have the blue on. He got the padding material first. Martha held her over her wrist and she carefully eased it straight. Donna closed her eyes and held her breath. Her legs bent and then straightened again as she fought against the pain moving her wrist caused.

"That is it," Martha assured her. The Doctor started to wrap the padding material around her wrist. He could go quite snug and tight now that the swelling had mostly gone down. It was only going to go down now rather than up. He went up to her knuckle line and then down to her elbow. He put additional padding around her thumb so that it wouldn't rub if she started to try and grab things despite the spica that would hold her thumb away from her hand to protect the bone at the base of it which was the one that was broken.

He then got the blue air hardening bandage and wrapped it around to form the cast. He was quick and efficient but he was gentle at the same time and Martha could see by the way he handled the material that he'd done it several times despite professing to not being a medical doctor. He folded the padding and the stockinette down at the ends of the cast and then tidied it up with strips of the casting material so the ends of her cast were protected and there were no rough edges. He then did the same with the fiddly bit around her thumb. She could bend her thumb at the first knuckle.

"Let's use a cradle splint for her fingers then when I waterproof the cast they will be okay as well?" the Doctor suggested to Martha. She nodded and he went and a wide plastic cradle splint in which her two broken fingers would fit. He'd not measured her at all but he brought back ones in the perfect size. Donna yelped as he slid them over her fingers and he apologised profusely. He taped them in place. Then helped Donna to put her arm in her sling where it would have to stay for at least two hours while the air drying cast dried completely.

"Thank you," Donna offered once it was finished. She wasn't going to lie and say that it hadn't hurt. When they had moved her wrist it had killed her and when the finger splints had been put on it had hurt then as well.

"You were brave," the Doctor commented.

"Shut up, Dumbo," Donna grumbled.

"You were," the Doctor advised. "I'd have cried." He kissed her on the top of her head before lending her an arm as she got down off the side of the bed again, just in case she did lose her balance. Martha chuckled.

"Well, Doctor," Martha commented. "New cast is done and it's Sunday. Are you going to drop me home this afternoon or am I going to have to call in work?" she asked him.

"Oh, stay, a while longer," Donna suggested. "You don't really have to get back to work do you?"

"Well, I do actually, I'm only off until tomorrow, but this has been a wonderfully welcome couple of days," she advised.

"He's got a time machine. Surely you could stay a couple more days and then just get dropped back early?" Donna offered and glanced to the Doctor. He looked rather uncomfortable for a moment as he tugged at the neck of his T-shirt as if missing his tie.

"Actually," the Doctor stated. "It doesn't quite work like that, Donna," the Doctor advised. "It isn't technically crossing time lines, but, well, it's just that…"

"Don't worry about it, Doctor," Martha offered. "I don't mind. You can drop me off, and Donna is going to need that cast taking off in a few weeks. How about I book a week off work and then I can keep an eye on her the first few days out of the cast in terms of physio?"

"Are you sure that is okay?" the Doctor asked.

"I think that is perfect, providing that you look after Donna in the meantime," Martha insisted. "No running off into danger while she's got an arm in a cast, at least not while she's still in discomfort. Give it a couple of weeks at least."

"I think we'll come straight back here," the Doctor suggested. "If that is alright with you, Donna?"

"I don't know if I could manage another two weeks on a tropical island," Donna feigned despair, and then whacked the Doctor on the arm. Luckily not using her cast yet though he guessed it wasn't going to be too long. "Of course it is alright, Dumbo."

"That is it, settled then," Martha commented. "You can drop me back after you've gone spear fishing and cooked us lunch again," she suggested.

They spent another morning lazing around on the beach. The Doctor went out and caught them lunch as promised and cooked it for them while Martha prepared a meal of sliced salad potatoes with an oil and herb dressing to go with it. Once they'd eaten the Doctor went in with the dishes and to make tea. He didn't care if they were on a tropical beach he still liked to have a cup of tea after eating. Donna and Martha had made a jug of tropical fruit juices and left it to keep chilled in the fridge. It had pineapple and coconut in as the base flavours so it was much like a Pina-colada but without the rum. He poured them both a glass of that and put crushed ice and straws in it for them. It did look more appropriate for the beach than his mug of tea.

Martha came into the galley just as he was about to leave with the drinks on a tray. "Are you sure you don't mind going back?" he asked her quietly.

"I don't mind at all," Martha commented. "As long as you don't waste the time."

"Thank you."

The Doctor took them back. This time the TARDIS did not land in Martha's bedroom but in the landing of her flat. She hugged Donna and told her to make sure she looked after her wrist and kept the Doctor in line. Then she hugged the Doctor and told him to make sure he remembered that Donna was injured and that he behaved and only took the chances that really mattered. The Doctor asked her a question and she nodded. He nipped into her flat and came back out again. Donna looked at him curiously but he just grinned at her innocently. Donna shook her head at him and they went back into the TARDIS.

The Doctor and Donna went back to the beach. The TARDIS parked in almost exactly the same spot again. It was nice. There were enough trees growing down onto the beach that if they wanted to sit in the shade that they could. Donna went back out and reclaimed her place on the beach. She elected to remain just in the shade so that she didn't burn, there was enough light reflecting from the sea and from the sand that she'd still tan but she didn't want to end up lobster red and blistered and sore. Then she'd not be able to enjoy her time on the island and she doubted that the Doctor was going to tolerate beach living for too long. It was almost worth breaking her wrist for.

The Doctor came out of the TARDIS with just his shorts on. His back was healed and the stitches were gone. There were the smallest fading bruises over his shoulder but the deep bronze of his tan and the smattering of freckles across his shoulders hid them. He had brought a jug of the tropical juice out and had put ice in it but he'd not brought any glasses.

"Are we just going to drink it straight from the jug, Spaceman?" Donna asked him when she saw that he had straws.

"Nope," the Doctor grinned. He indicated toward one of the trees growing. It was as close to a coconut tree as anything could get without actually being on Earth and in a coconut grove. It had large floating seeds on it and when cut opened they had both a water and a soft creamy flesh. It didn't taste exactly like coconut but it was still tasty and safe to eat. The Doctor proceeded to shimmy up the tree. The way he sat on it, holding on with his bare feet, and sliding up the trunk it was clear that he was no longer suffering any pain in his groin, though as Donna watched him she mused that he would be if he slipped.

He knocked four of the coconuts down out of the tree, so he'd not have to go up again later to get some to use the flesh out of for a beach curry he thought of trying. He cut the top off two of the coconuts with swift slices of the scythe from in his pocket. He tipped the water into a separate jug to keep it safe and then he poured some of the iced fruit juice into the coconut and popped a straw in it and then presented it to Donna with a warm smile.

"Pina-colada in a coconut," he announced to Donna.

"Thank you," she laughed.

"Ah, you've not taken any tramadol today have you?"

"No, not since last night to help me sleep," Donna offered. "Why?" she asked curiously and then sipped her drink. "Oh?" The tropical fruit tastes of pineapple and coconut were complimented and warmed with the bite of a generous glug of rum. "That's lovely, but, are you trying to get me drunk?" she asked him. He laughed and shook his head, but then flopped down onto the towel beside her and poured his own drink.

After they had enjoyed their drinks the Doctor picked up the sun screen. He carefully gathered Donna's hair together and got her to hold it up out the way as he squirted the sun screen first onto his hands in order to rub it across her shoulders and down her back. As she had not been swimming with the cast she was wearing a vest top with thin straps. As she'd not been able to fasten one she didn't have a bra on. He rubbed the sun cream into the back of her neck, making sure he got it under the straps, and under the edge of the vest so that when she shifted she didn't end up with red lines rather than white ones. He then continued over her left shoulder and down her arm as she let go of her hair. He rubbed the cream in all around her arm and down to her wrist and then over the back of her hand.

"Thanks, Time Boy." Donna smiled, but then looked at him curiously when he didn't immediately let go of her hand, instead was staring at it deep in thought. "Hey, you okay?" Donna checked with him.

"Um, yeah, sorry," the Doctor let go of her hand.

"Squirt?" she asked and held her palm out. The Doctor squirted some of the sun screen into her hand for her and she rubbed it into her chest and then down her right arm as far as the top of the cast. Then she spread some across her face and her legs. It was like a military operation and she had to get the Doctor to squirt it into her hands several times. He thought that he should have offered to do all of it for her, but he chickened out.

"Do you want me to do your back for you?" She asked him.

"Yes please," he twisted round so his back was to her. She reached past him and he squirted it into her hand. She rubbed it over his back. "You can hardly see where any of those stings were now," Donna told him. "I'm so glad you're okay," Donna advised as she smoothed the cream into his skin. He still felt cool to the touch even in the sunshine, but his skin glowed. She could feel the muscles under his skin and the gentle undulation of his ribs. "I was scared," she admitted.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor offered as he turned round. He moved to lie on his front on his towel facing her as she laid sat on hers.

"I don't think I have thanked you properly either," Donna suggested quietly as she rubbed her hand over her cast. "If you'd not jumped in front of that spine weasel I'd be dead, wouldn't I?" Donna asked him.

"It is quite possible," the Doctor agreed. "I'm just glad we don't have to find out. I couldn't have lost you, Donna." He picked at the end of the towel. "You're brilliant and…"

"Shut up." Donna laughed.

"No, I want to tell you something, so please, will you just listen for a moment?" the Doctor asked her.

"Okay," Donna agreed.

"You are brilliant, and you're even more brilliant because you don't believe that you're brilliant. You're the best mate that I've had in a very long time, and, I don't want to think about a time when you might not be in the TARDIS. I love having you around. I want to show you all the incredible, wondrous things in the universe. I want to keep you safe, and I know I've not done a very good job at that, and I'm so sorry that you ended up hurt, but I promise that I will look after you."

"You have looked after me," Donna assured him.

"I'm a bit scared of saying what I want to say," the Doctor admitted quietly.

"It's not like you to be tongue tied, Time Boy."

"I know, but, I kind of think this can go one of two ways, and I know which way I'd prefer it to go, but I don't want to be without you as a mate."

"I'm not going anywhere," Donna told him. "But what is wrong?" she asked a little worried about what he was possibly talking about.

"Nothing is wrong," the Doctor offered. "Except, maybe, um… oh, what the Hell?" he raised himself up onto his elbows and looked at her. "When I needed to expel the toxins and you asked me who I was going to be closing my eyes and thinking about and I didn't tell you? The reason why I didn't tell you was because it was you I was thinking about." He rose his knees up a little in preparation to bolt if he needed to.

"What?!" Donna squeaked slightly.

"It was you I thought about," the Doctor repeated. He had done it now hadn't he? He could see the flush rising into Donna's cheeks. She was going to end up raging at him and he was going to have to drop her home and then there would be no more best mates travelling around the universe. "I wasn't going to say anything and just forget about it, I mean we're mates, best mates and that is great, but then Martha said something about not missing out on a chance, I mean if it is a chance, I don't know if it is a chance, and I might have ruined every chance ever of just being mates never mind being more than mates because I know what I said and I remember what you said about no funny business, but I think maybe I might have changed my mind and if you wanted to change your mind then I would be very much amenable to trying some funny business after all."

"You want to try funny business?"

"Maybe, I mean, if you do and if I say I do it doesn't mean you're going to leave and never talk to me again, if you're never going to talk to me again, then no, I don't want to try funny business at all and we're forever just mates."

"But, you do actually want to try funny business?"

"Yep."

"With me?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Why?" the Doctor repeated the question. "Because you're brilliant. You're brilliant and beautiful and you smell wonderful and… are you going to smack me with your cast?" the Doctor paused and winced getting ready to duck and then run.

"I might," Donna advised him seriously. "If, you don't come and kiss me."

"Really?" He looked up to Donna. She bit her lip and nodded. The Doctor crawled past the jug of Pina-colada and onto Donna's towel. Donna didn't even complain about the sand that he dragged with him. He ducked down and chastely kissed her on the lips. He leant back from her a moment to see if she had just been teasing him and she was actually going to smack him.

"Is that it?" Donna asked him. "You ply me with alcohol, you scare me that you're going to kick me off the TARDIS, and you get sand all over my towel for that?" Donna demanded. "I don't think so." Donna raised her hand to the nape of his neck and pulled him toward her for another kiss. He pressed his lips to hers and she opened her mouth ever so slightly, welcoming the Doctor. Their breath mingled and he swept his tongue across hers. He raised his hands to her cheeks, pushing her hair behind her ears as he kissed her properly.

"Hmmm." The Doctor smiled as he broke and looked at Donna's plump red lips. He'd done that. He was a skinny streak of nothing and he'd kissed her. He put his hand to the back of her neck and leant over her so she laid back on the towel. "Okay?" he checked. She nodded. He kissed her again. He made sure that her cast wrist was protected. He didn't want to knock her and hurt her. That wouldn't do at all. He kissed her mouth, his tongue dipping in between her lips, darting back and forth to taste the different areas of her mouth. He welcomed her tongue into his mouth as they entwined. He kissed along her jaw to her neck. He kissed and lightly nibbled her pulse as he licked and tasted her throat.

"Might have known there would be licking," Donna giggled.

"There is going to be lots and lots of licking," the Doctor advised cheekily.

"I hope so," Donna commented.

"I promise." He held himself over Donna, straddling her and bracing himself on one arm so he didn't lean down on her. He kissed her neck and down to her collarbone. He returned to kiss her mouth as he slid a hand up under her vest top. He softly cupped his hand around her warm breast. He ran his fingers lightly over her nipple. Donna hummed into the kiss. The Doctor leant back so he was kneeling over her hips. He looked down on her. She was flushed and doe eyed as she looked up at him in a nervous mix of anticipation and arousal. The Doctor pulled her vest up. She took her left arm out of it and then took it off over her head. The Doctor leant down and kissed the space between her breasts. His hair tickled her chin and she giggled nervously. He kneaded her breast gently in his hand, her nipple responded, proud and erect when he passed his finger over the tip electric sparks shot through to centre in her sex. When he dropped his mouth over she moaned and arched slightly, urging him to take more into her mouth. He swirled his tongue around her nipple. Donna ran her hand over his head, her fingers threaded through his hair as she moaned slightly.

The Doctor traced her curves with his hand, from her breast, down over her waist and to her hip. He ran it down to her thigh as he suckled her breast, flicking her nipple with his tongue, and then he moved his hand up the inside of her thigh. She had loose wide legged jersey shorts on. He pushed the leg up so it rumpled as he slid his hand up under. He could feel the heat of her through her cotton panties as he ran a finger along the inside of her leg. Donna shifted slightly, widening her legs a little more. He ran his finger back down the other side of her. He ran a finger along both sides of her, easing the flesh together in a mound. Donna moaned as he ran his fingers either side of her sex. She wanted to beg him to plunder her sex with those long digits. For them to dance on her clit and to fuck her hard as he teased her.

The Doctor ran his fingers over her through her panties. He could feel her pushing down against his fingers. He hooked her pants over to the side and ran a single finger along the contours of her sex. The warm moist centre welcoming him as Donna whimpered. He did it again, allowing his finger to dip into her slightly, spreading the moisture to her clit as he rubbed it gently. The Doctor leant back and Donna mourned until she saw him suck the finger he had used on her. His eyes had darkened somewhat, but there was no danger there, only warmth. Donna didn't feel nervous any more, she felt entirely safe as the Doctor wriggled her shorts and pants down at the same time. Taking them over her hips and then yanking them down far enough that she could kick them off. They landed in the sand, but she didn't care.

The Doctor moved so he was kneeling between her legs. He pushed her knees up so they were bent either side of her. He looked at her in such a way that Donna felt that she was being admired which was highly unusual. She was glad that she'd shaved just before breaking her wrist or he'd have been faced by a red brush down there. He ran his fingers over her centre. The he lightly opened her with his fingers, every motion he had was gentle as if he was handling something entirely precious when the men Donna had been with before had been inconsiderate if not downright rough. Her breast still tingled from his mouth but it hadn't felt crushed or bruised in his hand, just caressed and moulded. She held her breath as he ducked down.

"Shit?" Donna gasped as he ran his tongue along her. Tasting her as he slid it from rear to the front, allowing it to linger on her clit. She shuddered and almost came there and then. "Doctor," she breathed. He did it again. "Oh God…" he tickled her clit with his tongue. Then licked her sex in a broad stroke again, sucking her clit and rolling with his lips. He slid a finger along her as he lapped at her clit with his tongue. He gently eased his finger into her, curling up internally as he slid a second finger in. He didn't go in deep, just to the right spot, he used short thrusts with his fingers as he licked and sucked her clit.

There was going to be no faking required as Donna felt her orgasm rising. She whimpered and wriggled and gasped. It was coming at her like a tidal wave as he used his hand and mouth on her. "Oh God, oh God, oh God…" Donna raised her hips up she shrieked and her whole core seemed to implode with muscle spasms. "Shit..." she gasped as the Doctor kissed the inside of her leg. She reached down to him and pulled him up toward her.

"Okay?" he checked.

"Bloody Hell," she managed as she shuddered with an unexpected after shock. The Doctor grinned at her. He'd done that. "Oh, shut it, Time Boy." Donna laughed and pulled him down to kiss her again. She ran her hand across the front of his shorts and found him aroused. "Are you still toxic?" Donna asked him.

"Shouldn't be," he offered. "But, we should avoid contact with it this time just in case."

"This time?" Donna asked him. "As opposed to there being another time?" she teased him. She fiddled a bit with the button on his shorts but couldn't get it undone with just one hand. He unfastened it himself. He stood back up to take his shorts off and kicked them off to the side. Rather than remain lying down, Donna got up onto her knees in front of him. She pulled him closed to her, with her hand around his cock, so there was no way he was going to disobey. He was thick and heavy but not yet fully hard, but she slid her hand up and down his shaft a couple of times to get the feel of him, and then licked around his tip. He groaned at the heat of her mouth as she sucked his tip. She so wanted to use two hands on him, but she'd have to make do with one and her mouth. She sucked him as she ran her hand down to his balls. She cupped and massaged them and he twitched and jerked away slightly.

"You're not still sore are you?" Donna checked with him.

"No, sorry, it tickled." He chuckled. Donna smiled and did it again, taking him back into her mouth. "That feels so good, Donna," the Doctor moaned slightly. He tried not to buck into her mouth as she ran her tongue around his head. She slid her hand up and down his shaft.

"You're so hard." Donna squeezed his shaft as his erection stood proud away from his body. It was long and thick and solid and she wanted it deep inside her. "Come down here," Donna instructed as she laid back down. He leant over her and kissed her as she brought her knees up either side of him. He rubbed her clit until she moaned and pleaded with him and then he guided his head toward her opening. He groaned deeply as he eased himself into her heat, feeling her stretch around him.

"Yeah, that's it," Donna moaned as he pushed in deep. He eased himself in and then drew out and then pushed in, slowly and carefully, letting Donna get accustomed to him being inside her. She whimpered and yelped as he pushed in deep. She wrapped her legs around him, angling her hips upward so he could drive himself in. He braced himself on his arms and set up a steady rhythm.

He thrust harder and faster as Donna encouraged him. Her moans and whimpers gaining in pitch and volume until he held himself deep inside her and she came undone around him helped along with his fingers on her clit as he rubbed her furiously and she bucked and tensed and cried out. He paused and then resumed his rhythm, feeling himself get closer and closer, he got faster and harder, losing himself in the act as Donna yelled at him to do it harder and everything seemed to focus on the sensations of his cock and balls slamming against her flesh, he was going to come, he was going to.

"I'm going to…" the Doctor growled as he thrust harder. He lost his rhythm. He was going to burst there and then right inside Donna as he held himself deep inside her, only remembering at the last second that there was the slightest of risks that a miniscule amount of toxin remained in his semen. He withdrew as Donna orgasmed again and he collapsed back onto his hip grunting and groaning as his cock twitched and he came, it sprung from him in an oily fountain, streaking across the sand.

"Where did that go?!" Donna exclaimed and laughed. She rubbed his cock a few times and he came again and then twice more until he sagged back onto the towels with a spent moan. Donna chuckled and laid so that her head was resting on his abdomen. He eased some spare strands of hair out of her face and looked down at her and smiled. "Okay?" he asked.

"Yeah." Donna nodded and linked her fingers through his. "You?"

"Yeah," the Doctor confirmed.

"You sure you're going to be happy to stay here for a couple of weeks?" Donna asked the Doctor.

"Right now I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be," the Doctor responded honestly. He rolled over slightly but only to refill their coconuts with rum punch and then settle back down again. The universe was just going to have to wait.


End file.
